Buna N Gaskets

Buna N Gaskets materials are very affordable and have high resistance hydrocarbons (oil), some chemicals gas and of course air and water. Recommended in applications under 225 F.

Buna-N Materials cut into Gaskets

Buna-N Gaskets – Also known as NBR, Buna-N, or Acrylonitrile-Butadiene Copolymers. Nitrile is one of the most common and least expensive materials for gaskets to be made of. It has an excellent compression set and exceptional tear and abrasion resistance. These materials have high resistance to heat, oil, chemical and gas.

Buna gasket material is available in a variety of durometers, to best fit your application. The durometer of rubber sheet gasket material indicates how soft it is. The lower the durometer number is, the softer the material.

There is a common misconception that all Buna-N gasket materials are the same, when in reality they have critical differences that must be understood when choosing the correct version. No matter what rubber compound you refer to, you must remember that ultimately,

It is a compound. A compound by its definition indicates that the material is composed of multiple types of rubbers. The creation of compounds is done to maximize performance of specific characteristics. The characteristics being emphasized may be tensile, recovery, durometer, color, finish, grip (when used as belts), ozone resistance, or any specific chemical or heat capability.

These specifications depend completely on the Buna gasket material composition, which is exactly why you need to understand all Buna gaskets are not the same. The service life of Buna gasket material varies from manufacturer to manufacturer because specific compound characteristics are added to enhance the durability by blending another material with the base material. These gaskets are using Buna-N or Nitrile.

There are countless variations of compounds which may include neoprene, carboxylated nitrile (XNBR), hydrogenated nitrile (HNBR), EPDM, EP, EPR, SBR, Chloroprene, Polyacrylate, Ethylene Acrylic, Acrylonitrile-Butadiene, and many more. These natural or synthetic rubbers have the capability to be mixed at various ratios, combined with fillers to form a specific compound to meet the needs of the required application. No matter how similar materials can be, no two are completely alike.

The staff at American Seal & Packing can provide the absolute best solution if we receive as much information and detail about the application as possible. For example, by specifying that the equipment the gasket material will be used outside, with a lot of time being exposed to ozone (sunlight), we may recommend using an EPDM blend into a Nitrile base to maximize the life-span of the gasket-material. Typically the choice would be to buy a pure EPDM material but by purchasing the EPDM blend, you benefit with cost savings. If compounded correctly, a nitrile gasket material can be NSF or FDA.

If you have experienced a repair that lasted less time than the products original life, it may be due to the compound mixed with the nitrile-based gasket material. To explain this simply, imagine you have two bouncy balls that you drop to the floor simultaneously. As they hit the ground, one ball bounces back up towards your chin while the other dies on impact and only dribbles weakly on the floor. The best way to explain this behavior is “compounding”. Although the two balls may look exactly the same, their composition differs, giving it completely different properties.

Gasket materials and rubber gaskets can be seen as a commodity given today’s market. It isn’t uncommon for industrial plants to take the lowest bidder when purchasing materials. However, the 25% savings they made by doing this gets washed away when the low-quality product fails. AS a result, this strategy turns into a 1000% increase via repair costs. American Seal & Packing strongly advises users to think long-term and purchase a higher quality product to experience optimal performance.

We have carefully selected the factories we work with, and have done business with them for several years. It is a priority we provide exceptional gasket materials from high quality sources. All of which are ISO 9001 certified and have met all of our other requirements.

A durometer is the measurement of the materials softness. The lower the number, the softer the material and vice versa. For example, a durometer of 20-30 is equal to the softness of a sponge while durometer 90 would be similar to the hardness of metal. Information on our Buna-N 60 Durometer sheet gasket is available

Additional information, such as specific applications where Buna-N sheet gasket material is used across all durometers is available

Read more about the benefits and advantages of using Buna-N sheet gasket material