Materials answer aerospace sealing demands

A Trelleborg Sealing Solutions UK product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 14, 2006

Novel materials meet specific needs of the aerospace industry, including high and/or low temperature resistance, compatibility with aggressive media and high pressure capabilities.

Busak + Shamban, one of the world's leading seal developers and manufacturers, is continuously developing new materials to meet the specific needs of the aerospace industry.

These include Isolast for high temperatures and compatibility against aggressive media, Turcon M30 for high-pressure situations where a nonabrasive material is required and FKM Turel LTFE for low temperature applications.

Busak + Shamban makes significant investment in research and development to ensure they are at the forefront of the technology behind their seals.

Isolast, the Busak + Shamban perfluoroelastomer is virtually inert and almost universal chemical compatibility.

Isolast has been approved by several aero engine manufacturers and specialised grades are available, which operate at continuous temperatures up to 325C.

These are ideal for situations when seals will be subject to elevated temperatures and at the same time potentially in contact with aggressive media.

A typical example would be the high temperature lubrication systems in aero engines.

The fact that they can be moulded to custom geometries or bonded to metal gives the material an added benefit in such environments.

Turcon M30 is a PTFE based nonabrasive material for high pressure applications, developed to offer sealing security over the increased component life of flight controls on new generation of civil aircraft such as the A380 and the B787.

An optimum compound crystalline form gives this material a dense and homogeneous structure while aromatic polymer fillers mean it has high temperature resistance.

The use of nonabrasive filler materials stops abrasion of mating surfaces under high loading conditions providing it with excellent friction characteristics, making it perfect for low-lubrication environments.

All this leads to increased wear resistance, improved leakage control and better stability in-service.

Ultimately, that means superior reliability and enhanced operational efficiency.

The Turel LTFE range of proprietary fluorocarbon elastomer (FKM) based materials provides certainty of sealing at temperatures as low as -40C.

Available at 75 and 90 IRHD hardness, the compounds demonstrate exceptional characteristics to meet the most demanding of aerospace sealing requirements.

Laboratory testing has shown that the materials perform well at 10C lower than the next best low temperature FKM material and at least 20C lower than any "standard" FKM material.

At the other end of the temperature scale, they have equally as good or slightly improved properties to other FKM materials at 200C.

In addition, immersion tests prove that Turel LTFE is resistant to a wider spectrum of aircraft fluids than other materials, with an acceptable resistance to Skydrol 500B.

These materials are ideal for sealing in any components that are subject to and are required to operate at extremely low temperatures, such as landing gear.