Aerospace Seals & Gaskets

Aerospace seals are potentially exposed to extreme temperature and pressure ranges. Because of the harsh and drastically changing conditions, high-quality seals and gaskets made with trusted materials and manufacturing processes are critical for a successful application.

Seals are found in many locations on aircraft, whether it’s for aviation, military, or other related sectors. This includes:

Aircraft engine components
Landing gears
Hydraulic lines
Fuel pumps
Brakes
Electronic enclosures
Doors and hatches

Spaceship Launch - SpaceX - NASA Astronauts

On May 30th, 2020 SpaceX launched NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule … This launch marked the return of a human launch capability on a United States rocket and capsule. I want to thank you personally for your dedication and hard work during the last several years to make this accomplishment possible.

Aerospace

Urgent need?

If you’re reading this because you have a late-stage seal performance problem please contact us now to troubleshoot and find the best solution. Quickly.  We can ship prototype compression molded seals in two weeks, LSR molded parts in 4-6 weeks, and cut elastomer, plastics and foams/sponges in hours or days.  Stock seals ship the same day. 

Our aerospace seals

There are four main categories for seals:

1. Static seals

The relative hardware is stationary.

Examples: Bearing chambers, gearboxes

2. Dynamic seals

One of the sealing surfaces reciprocates or oscillates relative to the other.

Examples: Landing gears, flight controls

3. Rotary seals

The inner or outer member of the sealing elements turn.

Examples: Rotor shafts, engine fuel pumps

4. Axial/face seals

The sealing surfaces are in the axial direction of the seal. Static seals are commonly used in this configuration.

Example: Electronic enclosures, doors, and hatches

Aerospace Seals - Astronuat in Spaceship Capsule

Common aerospace seal types, unrelenting performance requirements.

Seals in critical aerospace need to meet performance conditions that can change dramatically between takeoff or launch, high altitude or orbit, and return to landing.  They need to function at ambient temperature, elevated and subzero temperatures often within the course of minutes or hours.  Specialty material formulations and profiles are developed for fuel and coolant management, jet and rocket fuels, landing gear and flight control actuation hydraulics.  Seal types range from o-rings through fluid power seals, cassette seals, boots, bellows, and plate seals, and rubber/metal bonded configurations.

View seal types

Pressure

Seal profiles have a working window. They may also rely on the pressure to energize the seal. For example, an O-ring can seal in an environment with little to no pressure but a U-cup will not work in that environment because it relies on pressure to energize the sealing lips.
Materials also have pressure limitations. If too soft of a material is chosen for a high-pressure application, the seal will likely extrude and fail.

Temperature

Every material family also has a working window. If the material chosen for door seal cannot accommodate the sub-artic temperatures, the seal will not work properly and leak.

Chemical compatibility

If an incorrect material family is chosen, the seal will likely fail prematurely. For example, nitrile would swell when used with ester-based hydraulic actuators and may not form a proper seal as the surrounding hardware heat cycles.

Environmental factors

A seal’s main job is to prevent the leakage of fluids. Depending on the location, another job the seal may have is to prevent contamination of the environment such as dust and debris. This is where a wiper may be recommended.

Choosing the very best seal for the job

Aerospace engineers have long understood the criticality of seals. Program development periods are among the longest due to extensive qualifications and subsystems testing requirements. Our technical team at Darcoid is driven to help you develop the best possible seal for your unique application.

It is not unusual for new seal material formulations to come on line during program development, or conversely elastomer formulations may be retired by seal OEMs before a program launches. We have close technical relationships and stay up to date with latest material developments or retirements. Engage with a Darcoid applications engineer - we’ll share the latest news so you can keep your legacy specs up-do-date.

Seal design

Manufacturing process of aerospace seals at Darcoid

Common ways that aerospace seals are manufactured:

1. Die cutting

The stamping out a two-dimensional shape from a material sheet through a shearing force. The die is usually made with cold rolled steel and can cut rubber and plastics.

2. Molding

Fundamentally, molding a seal is taking the uncured formulation to a pliable state and filling a precision-made cavity. Once the material cools, the final product is a mold part. There are a few common processes for producing molded rubber seals.

3. Injection

Uncured rubber material is fed into a screw chamber and then heated into a liquid state and compressed into a cavity. Once the mold cools off, the rubber solidifies, and the mold opens up to eject the part ready for the next cycle.

4. Compression

The mold is typically made up of two halves. The mold is pre-heated and the uncured rubber material, known as a charge, is also pre-heated and placed into the lower half of the mold. Using the heat and pressure, the upper half of the mold lowers down into the fixed mold causing the charge to take the shape of the mold and cure.

5. Transfer

This is like compression molding except there’s a pot where the raw material is placed connected a network of spruces the material flows into the cavity.

6. Extrusion

The process is similar to injection molding where the raw material is fed into a screw chamber with high heat except instead of flowing into a cavity, it flows into through a die of the desired profile.

7. Machining

Involves gradually removing excess material from a raw billet of material using cutting tools to create a finished product. Machining is a common manufacturing method for plastic seals and components and can be used to fabricate or finish other materials such as rubber, urethane, or metal seals.

Identifying and controlling “performance creep” for future builds

A critical part of your program’s success is making sure the seal that gets assembled in your product 4 or 5 years from now performs the same as the seal you qualify for production release.

Aerospace seal specs are among the most precise of all industries, but small omissions or assumptions in your control specs can still create major headaches in the future. Flow-down requirements only work if they are comprehensively flowed down your supply chain.

We can help audit your specs from an outsider’s perspective and show where you may be risk-exposed or, conversely, over-spec’d. Darcoid Applications Engineers will share some of the additional seal performance creep mitigation steps we’ve developed so you can rest easy and focus on developing your next great thing!

Advanced specification support

Testing and quality assurance

Mission critical quality

Quality comes first with Darcoid.  Nothing moves without Quality’s approval.  Our team is driven to assure zero defects with control plans aligned to your quality process manual - We secured ISO 9001 registration in 2002 and we continue to innovate, most recently we certified to the IATF 16949:2016 standard. Darcoid works with ITAR and AS 9100 certified downstream suppliers.  We recognize specific QA and regulatory requirements for the aerospace industry applications including AS9100.

If you’re visiting this page because you are dealing with recurring quality escapes, please contact us and book time with our QA experts.  Our QA team has developed a wealth of seal quality expertise over the years.  We know where and how escapes can happen at every step of the manufacturing process and what controls need to be in place and verified. 

Quality

Seals on time wherever in the world you're assembling

Our fulfillment and supply chain teams’ mantra is “wherever and whenever you need it, your shipment will be there”. We can tailor supply programs to meet your planning and procurement goals. Being easy to do business with is critical and everyone in our customer experience team is motivated and empowered to align with your business model to make that happen.

Fulfillment

Why Darcoid

Darcoid has been in business for 75 years and over that time we have come to recognize one simple truth: The performance of your product is directly related to the quality and reliability of the seal.

With those words in mind we continue to innovate and collaborate with customers whose products change the world for the better. To deliver meaningful and measurable value to your entire organization we have built and deployed the powerful Next Level® strategy - by deliberately integrating with your teams in quality, seal technology, fulfillment services and growth strategy. True Partnership, measured, managed.

We’re looking forward to earning your trust and becoming your go-to seal solutions provider.

Next level

Let's
build.

You need to get your best product designed, validated, specified, ramped and released. We’ve got your back, from concept through zero defect supply programs. It starts with understanding what you need the seal to do. We’re ready to get started.

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