military grade gaskets
One of the best things to do when choosing a gasketing material is to pick a military specification to go along with it. There are a few reasons for this:
How do Commercial Gasketing diverge from Military Grade Gasketing?
Commercial Grade gasketing don’t have specifications. Usually these commercial grade specifications are in house designs by the calendar rubber company.
Reasons for Choosing a Military Specification for your Gasket:
- It makes it recognizable for a lot of suppliers. Any die-cutting supplier who is worth their weight will recognize the most common specifications available for their gasket materials.
- It nearly guarantees you the same product every time. While each manufacturer of a certain product will have slightly different properties of their materials, buying a mil spec grade gets something nearly identical everytime. This is because these specifications outline testing methods, thickness tolerances, and more.
- The economy of scale for these materials is pretty good. Since most gasket suppliers recognize these materials, usually a few manufacturers make this material in decent volume. For that reason, the economy of scale allows a good price point for many of these materials.
- Military Gasket Specifications lay out all sorts of requirements for how things are tested. For example, they can/may specify the following:
A. How long between annual tests for ASTM, or AMS, or MIL SPEC specifications.
B. When lots of material have to be tested, and what metrics have to be tested.
C. Different requirements that should be tested depending on what type of gasket it is.
Military Grade Gasket(s)
With all of that said, I listed out some of the common gasketing materials available. These are listed along with the military specifications available for the respective material.
military equipment
military equipment
Options for Military Grade Materials
Silicone Closed Cell Sponge-AMS-3195(Medium)/AMS-3196(Firm)
Silicone Solid Rubber-A-A-59588 Class 2A/2B Grades (40, 50, 60, 70, 80)
Neoprene Closed Cell Sponge-ASTM D1056 2C(1,2,3,5)C1F1
Neoprene Solid Rubber- MIL-R-6855 Type 2 Class A/B Grades (40, 50, 60, 70, 80)
Fluorosilicone Closed Cell Sponge(Medium Density)- AMS-3323 Type 2
Fluorosilicone Solid Rubber– MIL-R-25988 Type II Class 1 Grades (40, 50, 60, 70)
More Info on Military Grade Gasketing
For more information on military grade gasket materials, or you believe you have an application that could utilize one of them, please contact sales@nedc.com.