Application
Ice Cream Manufacture

Customer
Major European Food Manufacturer

Product or Service Supplied
Consultancy and sealing system design.

Problem
Ammonia based refrigerant was being lost after a periodic warm water purge. Many Elastomers have thermal expansion coefficients higher than metal but their low temperature retraction rate is poor. At low temperatures elastomer seals therefore respond much more slowly than the associated metal work.

Objectives
To provide a sealing solution to satisfy all the criteria of a low temperature operating environment which experienced increased temperature excursions.

Approach
Tests on different candidate materials were carried out at low temperatures with service fluids. The data was input into ELASTEQ software to model the transient sealing stresses of candidate seals and the metal housing.

Outcome/Benefits
The studies identified design, material and operating problems, and provided seal system designs that satisfied all the requirements. Leakage problems, which had resulted in the loss of significant volumes of toxic of refrigerant were solved.

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