Author: Alex Chappell

Superheated Steam, Hydrocarbons, and Other Applicable Uses for Durlon 8900

When it comes to its fluid sealing solutions, Gasket Resources Inc. (GRI) is constantly innovating. By asking for feedback from our customers, staffing our team with highly qualified technicians and engineers, and attending industry tradeshows, we aim to stay ahead of the curve.

We listen to our customers and stay current with industry standards to ensure we consistently deliver the most effective solutions.

Introducing the Durlon® 8900 Gasket Material

At GRI, we’re constantly developing new products to solve the industrial challenges and fluid sealing problems our customers face. Our most recent innovation, launched after more than a year of testing on superheated steam turbines in boiler house applications, is the Durlon® 8900 gasket material.

A compressed non-asbestos sheet specifically designed for high temperature applications, the Durlon® 8900 gasket material is suitable for saturated and superheated steam, oil, dilute acids and alkalis, hydrocarbons, solvents, and refrigerants.

It is designed for service conditions to 925°F (496°C) and continuous operating temperatures of -100ºF to 752°F (-73ºC to 400°C), or 2000 psi (13.8 Mpa).

Along with all of our compressed non-asbestos gasket sheets, the Durlon® 8900 has our new, proprietary anti-stick coating applied to the surface of the material for improved installation and easy removal.

This new, anti-stick formulation is exceptionally helpful in high temperature situations where imperfect flange surfaces and gasket disintegration make gasket removal especially difficult and time consuming.

Handling Superheated Steam

Working with superheated steam poses myriad challenges, but the advent of the Durlon® 8900 solves many of them. Superheated steam is created by further heating wet or saturated steam beyond the saturated steam point.

This yields steam that has a higher temperature and lower density than saturated steam at the same pressure. Superheated steam is mainly used in propulsion/drive applications such as turbines, and is not typically used for heat transfer applications.

Being dry, superheated steam is a severe environment that is detrimental to compressed sheet type gasket materials and the use of PTFE materials is very limited due to high temperatures.

Until recently the only alternative gasket materials for  superheated steam were flexible graphite or semi metallic gaskets such as kammprofile or spiral wounds but these may not be suitable for pumps, turbines and other equipment where special configuration gaskets are required.

Recently, Gasket Resources introduced Durlon® 8900, a compressed fiber sheet specifically designed for superheated steam. It was tested for over a year in superheated steam turbines in a boiler house application. In this application the boiler pressure was 400 psig at 725F superheated steam.

Subsequent to testing with no issues the Durlon® 8900 was expanded throughout the boiler house. Expanded installations included other steam turbine applications and a hot air dryer in 165# SH steam at 600F, which traditionally had been a problem where no gasket material had successfully worked.

The success of Durlon® 8900 is due to the careful design considerations that went into its development, including its very low binder content and graphite filler composition, which is reflected in DIN 52913 Stress Relaxation results of only 10% relaxation for 16 h @ 347°F (175°C) and 17% relaxation for 16 h @ 572°F (300°C).

Durlon® 8900: Flexible Material for High Temp Applications

Working with GRI

Interested in learning more about the Durlon® 8900? Review the product specs to get more information about the gasket’s benefits and determine if it’s the right fit for your application.

To view all of our available products that work for each chemical across industries, visit our chemical compatibility online tool.

Or download our technical handbook below:

The advantages of working with GRI include hands-on installation and online training support; our team is constantly adding new training and product guide materials to our resource library.

Ready to speak with a fluid solutions expert? Reach us directly by submitting a contact request.