Customer and testing data has shown that Simrit’s E454 EPDM (ethylene-propylene rubber) O-ring sealing systems outperform competitive O-rings in critical commercial aircraft hydraulic systems. Manufactured for high quality and extensively tested, the phosphate ester fluid hydraulic sealing systems are expected to perform flawlessly for years in primary and secondary flight controls, and braking systems of commercial aircrafts.
“Based on our test results and simulated component tests, we knew that the E454 material was a quantum leap over competitive materials when we commercialized it in 2006,” said Dr. Robert W. Keller, materials development manager, Simrit. “Today, our E454 compound not only meets the demanding requirements of NAS-1613 Rev. 5 in all commercially available phosphate ester hydraulic fluids, but it significantly outperforms competitive materials in both simulated and actual application systems.”
The hydraulically boosted primary and secondary flight controls are critical to modern commercial aviation, as they provide the basic abilities of the aircraft to fly, turn, climb, descend and stop. As a result, all aspects of the systems—including the sealing technologies—are vital to passenger safety.
“To ensure the consistency and quality of the product, we only manufacture the E454 compound at our Santa Ana, California AS9100 and Nadcap-certified facility,” said Vinay Nilkanth, VP of global sales, aerospace, Simrit. “This allows us to manufacture the highest-quality products for our customers’ crucial needs.”
As a result of its superior composition and performance, several major commercial aircraft manufacturers and suppliers have chosen the material over its competitors. As an example, Simrit’s E454 O-rings were chosen exclusively by a major manufacturer of flight control hydraulic power units and were evaluated with the latest Type V (AS1241) phosphate ester hydraulic fluids in a wide body commercial aircraft. After several thousand hours of service and several hundred complete flight cycles, the Simrit E454 O-rings were examined and found to be in “as new” condition in terms of dimensions and physical properties. Competitive O-rings had shown issues with wear and compression set under similar circumstances.
Additionally, a major manufacturer of components for phosphate ester hydraulic flight controls switched all of their components to Simrit E454 O-rings to solve leakage issues on a variety of commercial airliners. The Simrit O-rings were selected after the competitive O-rings were not able to perform despite several re-designs and two years of trial-and-error evaluations.
