Physical property of seal-gasket for glove box panel in reprocessing facilities

Goto, Yuichi ; Yamamoto, Masahiko   ; Kuno, Takehiko ; Surugaya, Naoki 

Chloroprene rubber gaskets are often used to seal the glove box body and its panels. Such gaskets are deformed with compressive pressure and its elastic restoring force keeps sealing property. Therefore, gaskets play an important role in glove box sealing. However, physical properties of those used in glove box have not reported so far. In this study, hardness, elongation, tensile strength and compression set are investigated and its sealing performances are evaluated. The gaskets samples are taken from the glove box, which is used for 37 years. It is found that hardness, elongation and tensile strength of gaskets are changed due to the aging but its values are within the specification of chloroprene rubber. Also, the compression-set is less than the value that sealing performance is decreased. The results show that even the gaskets are used for long time, it has the property to keep sealing performances of glove box.