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Case History
No 1:
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Glass-lined steel agitator
under vacuum |
| Problem:
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A glass-lined agitator vessel
operating from vacuum to 35 mbarg absolute at about 200 °C was
sealed using a PTFE envelope gasket with a corrugated metal and aramid
fibre insert. The gasket had a lifetime of a maximum of one year before
it would become brittle and break down due to chlorinated solvent
diffusing through the PTFE envelope. The old gasket was very difficult
to remove from the flange face. |
| Solution: |
In order to prevent chemical attack through diffusion and to achieve
a long-lasting, reliable seal, GORE™ Series 600 Gasket Tape
9mm thick and 65 mm wide was installed.
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| Conclusion: |
The agitator vessel was first fitted with GORE™ Series 600 Gasket Tape in November 1998 and has operated since then without
problem.
The customer has significantly reduced costs as the whole installation
time has been cut from 2 days to 4 hours. All that was needed was
to lift the cover by a few centimeters - and as there was no time
lost while waiting for filler - which would normally be needed to
compensate the unevenness of the flanges - to harden.
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Case History
No 2:
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Glass-lined distillation column
with packing |
| Problem:
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A glass-lined steel distillation column made up of eight sections
and standing 18m high started to leak in the join between the second
and third sections (counting from the bottom) and because the medium
was escaping, the problem has to be solved as quickly as possible.
Until now, installing a new gasket - in this case, a PTFE envelope
- meant virtually completely dismantling the whole column
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| Solution: |
In order to
achieve a long lasting, reliable seal and at the same time prevent
chemical attack GORE™ Series 600 Gasket Tape 9mm thick and
55mm wide was installed.
|
| Conclusion: |
By using GORE™ Series 600 Gasket Tape the column did not
have to be dismantled. All the sections above the joint were lifted
approximately 15cm by a crane in just one piece. This space between
the 2nd and 3rd sections was just enough to cut up and remove the
old gasket so that the GORE™ Series 600 Gasket Tape could
be installed. This meant that the time to replace the gasket was
cut from three/four days down to only one day which saved approximately
€?25,000 (£15,000) on installation costs while also reducing
lost production.
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Case History
No 3:
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Glass-lined steel
evaporator with tantalum heat exchanger - concentrated sulphuric acid
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| Problem:
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A glass-lined steel evaporator DN 1600, 6m long, was heated to170 °C
using a tantalum tubular heat exchanger also 6m long. When changing
the PTFE envelope gasket, which had been used until then, the heat
exchanger had to be completely removed. For the user this meant
that regasketing took two days to complete because removing the
heat exchanger meant that other equipment had to be dismantled and
extra space made.
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| Solution: |
In order to achieve a long-lasting, reliable seal and to avoid
chemical attack, GORE™ Series 600 Gasket Tape 6mm thick
and 55mm wide was installed.
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| Conclusion: |
Installing
GORE™ Series 600 Gasket Tape meant that there was no need
to remove the tube bundle and the evaporator was regasketed within
a half day. This meant that start-up of the evaporator was one and
a half days earlier than it would have been using the closed PTFE
envelope gasket. The user could save considerable costs through the
shorter installation period while reducing lost production.
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