We tested the heck out of it. So did a nuclear plant. And the US Navy. And it passed with flying colors.

How do you know the VSG high-density graphite pressure seal will never leak, save tons of man-hours and can be delivered in 48 hours or less?

You have to go back to the early 1990’s with a nuclear public electric power utility called Arizona Public Service (APS). One APS engineer noted that metal seals have only a 60% chance of sealing. If they don’t seal, they have to be welded or filled with concrete and there’s no access to the valve until the entire system is shut down for maintenance.  APS switched to graphite.

Shortly thereafter, the US Navy called.  They we’re having a weight problem with silver coated metal seals.  Besides that, they were very pricey.

So, EGC came to the rescue.  We knew that Thermafoil® flexible graphite has the ability to micro-seal a surface. And, when the seal is built to the proper thickness, it can adjust to out-of-roundness conditions.  As an added bonus, there is no property loss in the presence of nuclear radiation. It was a natural-fit for the Navy’s high-pressure valve application.

But we didn’t stop there. We tested the heck out of it and the test data proved that our pressure seal would work when all others did not.

We did our accelerated testing at the APS facility where they loaded and unloaded a fixture both temperature and pressure-wise to simulate as many years as possible.  The data was extrapolated and showed a life expectancy of 26 years.

Then the Navy took over and conducted its own tests by running a 500-hour shock and steam test at the Target Rock steam test facility.  The APS results were confirmed and the EGC flexible graphite pressure seal performed without any leakage and hit the mark on compressibility.

So, if you’re looking for why the EGC pressure seal really works, you need to look no further than our test data from 25 years ago and right now!  Need more information? Check out our site or call one of our engineers at 440.285.5835.