5Ways A Fluoropolymer Coating Improves The Humble O-Ring

O-rings are one of the samll, hidden,but vitally important parts of so many industrial items in our technologically-driven world, They are vital for sealing purposes in everything from automotive engines and filtration systems to domestic water heaters and water softeners. Although available in an enormous range of shapes, widths,diameters and materials, they are essentially a ring of round rubber.

O-rings may be useful, but they can also be immensely frustrating. They stick together. are difficult to handle and differentiate from each other, and are often very small and easily lost.

Lubricating the rings for installation is a mightmare, Applying oil or talc onto O-rings is easy enough, but after a short storage period, the lubricant makes its way to the bottom of the comtainer, leaving little on the top O-rings,and a sticky mess at the bottom. There are often health and safety issues with many oil lubricants, as well as environmental concerns on disposal of oil residue, oil-soaked rags, etc. Using oil lubricants also runs the risk of fouling up automatic installation-machine lines, leading to higher maintenance and downtime costs.

O-rings can also be problematic even after they’ve been installed. By nature they are often exposed to solvents and other chemicals that can degrade the rubber, thereby reducing seal effectiveness.

Coatings to the rescue

Best Fluoro, manufacturer of the world’s largest, most complete line of fluoropolymer coatings, has developed a range of coatings to solve there problems.Using a fluoropolymer coating on O-rings offer these benefits:

l  Reduces the coefficient of friction without using a separate lubricant, thereby easing installation, and helping to stop the O-rings from “sticking” to each other.

l  Avoids the need to use a messy lubricant such as oil, talc or silicone.

l  Increases the chemical and weather resistance of the O-ring, thus protecting it from degradation by solvents, salt water, etc.

l  Colour-codes O-rings, making it easier to differentiate among them. A range of colours from traditional black to bold orange is available.

l  Enables the use of lower-cost rubber substrates, since the coating achieves the desired performance without having to rely on expensive substrates.

Solvent-borne and environmentally friendly waterborne coatings are available for use on a wide range of substrates.

Best Fluoro O-ring coatings are designed for application by coatings techniques such as quadrant coating or tumble spray. Such techniques are bulk-application,cost-effective techniques that give uniform and consistent coating coverage. They are suitable even for the smallest of O-rings, where direct spray application is time consuming and inefficient.