nium and brass cannot be installed in ethanol-based fuel depots. Likewise, they don’t use cork-based gaskets and/or natural rubber seals. Yet these fuels don’t cause harm to biological tissue, not unless they’re ignited. Again, it’s the susceptibility of a particular gasket materials’ backbone that creates the threat here. To prevent gaskets from being eaten away by these seal-incompatible chemicals, a system designer has to know exactly how a specific chemical family affects a particular gasket material.
Gasket Design: Chemical Resistance
While one seal elastomer staunchly holds its form and features, an almost identical gasket dissolves into a useless ring of broken rubber. The material has lost its form, so it’s no longer capable of creating a reliable seal. Apparently, an acidic reaction has broken down the seal material. In truth, the chemical could just be performing as a catalyst. The molecular structure, covalent bonds and all, are then broken down as a consequence of this entirely natural action. To prevent such bond-breaking reactions, chemically resistant gaskets must be selected. These sealing materials stay inert and reactance-free when attacked by known fluids.
And that’s the crux of the matter, the fact that the fluid carrier must be a known chemical. Only then can the designer select a gasket material, one that’s chemically compatible and reactance resistant. Essentially, the seal material’s structure-retaining bonds stay inert when impacted by a known family of chemical agents. Best case scenario, a selected gasket substance should provide broad-spectrum chemical compatibility so that it has a better chance of resisting the many oils, solvents, and caustic chemicals that exist in this industry.