Case Study
Designing the Ideal Gasket for a Tablet Press
Recently, Western Rubbers had received a request for manufacturing a silicone gasket from a very established company in the drug manufacturing sector, for sealing the 4 lids on all sides of a Tablet Compression Machine.
Customer Requirement
Silicone gasket for Tablet Compression Machine
Problem
The image below shows the section of the profile of the existing gasket.
1. Overtime, with use, the gasket would tend to bulge out of the groove. Thus, in turn the lids would not shut properly. Operator intervention was needed to make the seal sit inside the groove properly before going ahead with the machine operations.
2. A gasket being extremely critical to the smooth functioning of any machine, especially the pharmaceutical section, the end user was suffering on account of increased machine downtime costs. Along with this, there was a high risk of contamination due to constant operator intervention for fixing the gaskets.
To understand in lay man terms, section A, B, C and D were to be fit inside the seal groove. The respective groove dimensions were also 8 mm. The rest of the seal remained outside the groove.
Solution
Western Rubbers understood the problems being faced by the end user and was asked to offer a solution for the same. After some amount of Research and Development, the engineers at Western Rubbers suggested some design changes.
The seal was manufactured in the following modified profile:
-Notice in this section, the dimensions of A, B, C and D are modified to ensure the seal fits tightly inside the groove. The elastomeric properties of silicone allow for the rubber to be compressed to fit in the groove.
-Further, a hollow section is provided in the seal. This space allows silicone to better compress in the groove.
-The ribs on the sides further ensure that the seal is held perfectly in place, even after intensive machine operation.
The Result
The modified profile design was successful. The seal functioned as desired. The machine downtime costs reduced, and the customer was very satisfied with the work done by Western Rubbers.
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