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Non-Asbestos Gasket Material
 In
the 1970's there was no such product as Non-asbestos
gasketing. Asbestos was the product of the day and
why not, it was effective, low cost and as long is
it was handled properly it was safe.
In the 1980's asbestos became a dirty
word, and for good reason it caused cancer. The
problem was the baby got thrown out with the bath
water. The asbestos in asbestos gasket material was
embedded in the rubber it was blended with so,
unless you took a grinder to the material to
separate the asbestos out and then breathed in the
asbestos (which could be avoided by oiling or
wetting the material first), it was not going to
hurt you. Even so, the lawyers got to work on it
and effectively killed the industry. The only
remaining manufacturing of asbestos gasket material
is off shore. Today, very few distributors in the
USA will carry it (including this one) most will
only sell non-asbestos gasket materials. American
Seal & Packing has never sold any asbestos product
and only sells non-asbestos compressed gasket
materials.Johns Manville took the biggest hit, once
the largest distributor of gasket material in the
Untied States (JM 60 was a standard), their
liability was the worst since they also produced
asbestos insulation. The asbestos fibers were easily
released from insulation and easily breathed in.
Johns Manville eventually declared Chapter 11 and
sold off divisions. The gasket material division
was later reformed as a portion of JM Clipper and
no longer sold asbestos.
In
the 1980's the industry was prone. The first
company to come out with a quality non-asbestos
substitute and to market it well was Garlock. At
the time Garlock was the number two seller of
compressed asbestos gasket material (number 3 was
Durabla Manufacturing). Garlock came out with their
"Blue Guard" line and although it was not as good as
asbestos in many applications it was better than a
potential law suit. Before long Garlock was number
1. U.S. Gasket material customers were afraid of
purchasing any asbestos containing product. With
the exception of the Oil refineries.
The
refineries took their case to the supreme court and
won the right to maintain the use of asbestos gasket
material since no other product at the time was
proven to be as effective. It did not make sense to
protect workers from asbestos but not protect them
from a failed gasket which in some applications
(such as a steam line) can cause death. People have
been cut in half by walking past a leaking steam
flange due to gasket failure. The refineries won
and still use asbestos gasket material to this day.
To the best of our knowledge that product is
generally Durabla Manufacturing's "Durabla Black" a
very high grade asbestos sheet. Durabla Mfg.
produces their material in Canada.
Most
of todays non-asbestos gasket materials contain
either Kevlar, an aramid fiber, fiberglass, carbon,
graphite or another mineral fiber. Todays
manufacturers include: Garlock, Klinger (Now
Thermoseal Inc.), Durabla Manufacturing,
JM Clipper (Now
Parker Hannifin), and
DXSEAL. Most
of the manufacturers are now producing off shore.>>Next
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