Sealing material looks to the future

A special polyurethane elastomer sealing material, developed by Economos, claims to take the science of sealing well into the 21st century. Mark Fletcher reports. The new materials, designated with the brand names X-Ecopur, XH-Ecopur and XS-Ecopur are the most advanced variation yet of Economos’ Ecopur sealing material. X-Ecopur has been developed as a high-performance composite sealing material, with superior operating characteristics to PTFE seals, as regards ease of installation, friction, wear or leakage. It is being promoted for use predominantly in injection moulding units, machine tools, mobile hydraulics and in metering and mixing machinery. The new material also has major advantages over PTFE seals in other applications, such as with high pressure or large gaps. An additional advantage is that, with its thermoplastic structure, Economos can produce either a single seal to virtually any size, or in short JIT runs, or in very cost-effective large runs using injection moulding. Economos originally developed Ecopur ten years ago as a more versatile and durable alternative to PTFE seals. Since then, it has won a substantial share of the industrial seal market, achieved, in part, through the continuous introduction of new formulations aimed at specialised operating conditions and applications. To date, Economos has developed ten different formulations of Ecopur seals, all of which are used extensively around the world in the manufacturing, pharmaceutical, food processing, oil exploration, and construction industries. A research paper is available from Economos UK summarising the research, development, testing and operational characteristics of X-ECOPUR, along with information about its technical performance criteria. MF