Manufacture of Gaskets- Introduction
It would be fair to say that most people take the manufacture of gaskets for granted. These small, simple pieces of engineering genius may look rather unassuming, but the humble gasket is actually responsible for holding up much of the engineering industry.
From your home dishwasher to your car and even holding together the world’s oil pipelines, gaskets are absolutely vital in engineering. In fact, you might be surprised at just how important they are.
What different materials are used in the Manufacture of Gaskets?
Gaskets can be made from many different materials and substances, each with its own specific properties and applications. For instance, if the requirement is for water and air sealing, a different type of gasket will be used from an application where providing a malleable and flexible buffer is required.
Some of the more common materials for gaskets are cork, neoprene, rubber and plastic, although even paper gaskets are used in some applications.
What are gaskets used for?
Manufacture of gaskets – Put simply, they have a very wide range of uses, from providing a buffer or spacer between two moving parts, to seal a join and provide protection against water and the air or to allow some movement and compression between two solid pieces of machinery.
Where two pipes join (for instance, in your dishwasher or washing machine) a watertight one will be needed to ensure water doesn’t leak out. That same washing machine will also make use of cork gaskets to help dampen the movement of some of the parts of the machine and prevent damage to the unit itself. The same item, essentially, but with two very different materials and two very different applications.
The manufacture of Gaskets don’t just stop unfortunate water leaks and make your washing machine less noisy, though. They also help to save your life. They sit between the linking parts of your car’s exhaust system, for example, help stop toxic fumes from your car’s exhaust from entering the car itself, helping to protect you against deadly carbon monoxide poisoning.
Flexible, reliable and innovative
New uses for them are being discovered all the time, and the wide-ranging materials used in the manufacture of gaskets means that the wide range of properties makes it a flexible, reliable and innovative piece of engineering genius which will continue to find more and more innovative uses for generations to come.
Read our previous blog on Precision Engineered Washers here.