Power October 2022 140th Anniversary Supplement - 32

Some Old-Time Gasket Best Practices Still Hold
True Today
POWER magazine has been covering
new technology and reporting on
power industry best practices for 140
years. Founded in 1882, the publication
has published countless technical
articles on topics of all types, including
pieces focused on gaskets. Although
cases could be found from many issues
in POWER's archives, the following
are a couple of examples pulled
from articles published more than 110
years ago.
In the June 11, 1912, issue of POWER,
the " Devo Gasket " (Figure 2) was
featured in a short article. The gasket
was manufactured by the Goetze Gasket
& Packing Co., in Brunswick, New
Jersey. The article explained that the
gasket was intended for high and low
pressures, as well as for superheated
steam. It consisted of " a corrugated
steel gasket entirely embedded in an
asbestos covering, which is graphited
throughout. The gasket is 1/8 in. in
thickness, but it can be compressed
to 1/16 in. " The article continued, " Being
deeply corrugated, this gasket will
make a steam-tight joint even where
the flange surface is unusually rough. "
Somewhat surprisingly, similarly designed
gaskets still exist today.
In an article published in the Feb.
13, 1912, issue of POWER, the topic
of proper gasket cutting and installation
was addressed. " The two principal
points regarding a good packing job
are the cutting of the packing and the
putting it into place, " Scott Norton of
Springfield, Ohio, wrote.
Concerning the cutting of sheet
packing, Norton explained, " It is all
right to place the packing against the
flange and tap it lightly with the hammer
for marking, but on no account hit
sufficiently hard to cut the gasket; use
the knife for that, as the hammer tears
it. To save time, men will sometimes
cut the bolt-holes out with the peen
end of the machinist's hammer. This is
bad practice and is the cause of many
Latte suggested that the large number
of options available created confusion,
which led some inventors to
search for " a universal gasket suitable
for all applications. " However, Latte
explained, " Such gaskets do not and
cannot exist. " Rather, he suggested
the goal of developing a universal gas32
PAST,
PRESENT & FUTURE
or poor gaskets-there is only a correct
or an incorrect selection of a gasket for
a given application, since many other
parameters play a part in this matter. "
2. A cutaway view of the " Devo Gasket "
is shown in the image on the top, which
was published in the June 11, 1912, issue
of POWER magazine. The image on the
bottom is of modern-day corrugated metal
gaskets produced by Lamons. Sources:
POWER and Lamons
blowouts at the bolt-holes. "
The article further explains, " Equally
as important as cutting the gasket and
putting it in place is the coming up on
the bolts with the nuts. " Norton wrote:
" Just watch a first-class engineer
come up on the bolts on his engine
cylinder head or steam chest when
replacing them. Note how carefully he
comes up on them all, little by little,
paying particular attention to each one
in turn as the task is nearly done. One
or two bolts are not put under a severe
strain while the rest are being brought
up to proper tension, but the pressure
is divided equally and gradually on
them all. The inclination to come up
tight first on one bolt, then follow with
the next, and so on, is the cause of
many blowouts at the bolt-holes. "
One last lesson shared in the article
involved cost. The article says, " The
cheapest part about any gasket is its
original cost; putting it in is the expensive
part. " Perhaps the most surprising
thing is that these lessons still resonate
today, more than 110 years after
being published in the pages of POWER
magazine. This just goes to show
that good engineering practices are
timeless.
ket can only marginally be approached
by increasing the application ranges of
gasket materials.
" An industrial engineer and user of
gaskets should always become critical
when 'good' or 'poor' gaskets are discussed, "
wrote Latte. " The basic applicable
approach is that there are no good
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A Materials Revolution
Czernik explained that paper gasket
manufacturing went through a " major
revolution " after World War II with
the introduction of the beater-add (BA)
process. " In this process, elastomers,
fibers, and fillers are mixed with water
in a slurry. The slurry is then deposited
on a conveyor belt and the water drawn
off. After heating, the BA facing is ready
to be made into gaskets, " he wrote.
The BA rubbers include nitriles, styrenes,
acrylics, fluorocarbons, and others.
Czernik noted that blends of the
rubbers are common. " Subsequently,
composite gaskets incorporating beater-add
facing materials and either a
perforated or a solid steel reinforcing
core became the dominant products for
sealing various engine gasketing applications, "
he wrote.
After it became widely recognized
that asbestos increases the risk of several
serious diseases, including asbestosis,
mesothelioma, and lung cancer,
many governments began to restrict its
use. According to the International Ban
Asbestos Secretariat, 67 countries have
now banned asbestos including all Organisation
for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) countries except
Costa Rica, Mexico, and the U.S.
Even China has banned asbestos.
As a result of the restrictions, many
materials manufacturers worked in earnest
to develop alternatives to asbestos.
With a wealth of resources behind them,
they have been largely successful. Today,
compressed non-asbestos materials are
available that consist of non-asbestos fibers,
such as fiberglass or aramid fibers,
combined with rubber. This formulation
has proven to have very good temperature
and pressure performance, and often
serves as a suitable replacement for
asbestos-containing materials.
Gasket Types and Materials
There are dozens of different gasket materials
available to meet engineering design
specifications for almost any power
plant system. The following are some of
the broad gasket types that exist:
POWER Supplement | October 2022
http://www.powermag.com
Power October 2022 140th Anniversary Supplement

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