Sealing technology manual for the process industry - Chemical industry

THE PROCESS INDUSTRY AND ITS REQUIREMENTS CHEMICAL INDUSTRY Most of these media require excellent and comprehensive resistance charac- teristics of the seals used in order to ensure smooth operational processes, but also in equal measure robust fea- tures to withstand the sometimes ex- tremely high pressures. For this, Freudenberg offers highly-re- sistant sealing solutions made from synthetic materials such as PTFE, as well as a wide range of high-quality elastomeric materials such as perfluo- roelastomers like Simriz®, EPDM or FKM when elastomeric flexibility is re- quired in less aggressive production environments. A wide range of thermally and chemi- cally-resistant flat gaskets is available especially for the pipes and flange con- nections that are frequently used in the chemical industry, as well as uni- versally applicable secondary seals for the mechanical seals used in pumps. The versatility of the processes in the manufacture and processing of chem- icals requires separate examination of individual areas. A summary of the main applications is presented on the following page. The chemical industry is concerned with both the production of basic chemicals such as ammonia, acids, al- kalis and simple hydrocarbons, and with the further processing of these materials into high-quality products. Thus, ammonia is obtained from ni- trogen in order to produce a fertilizer from the former. For example, crude oil is used to produce simple hydro- carbons from which high-grade plas- tics are then synthesized. Introduction 18

Pages Overview