Industry Standard on use of asbestos gaskets & steam.

Larry martin

I would like to know if there is an Industry Standard on the use of asbestos gaskets on steam, and at what pressures these particular gaskets should not be used.

Tony Conner

I Don't...

...know anybody who'd deliberately buy and install asbestos anything anymore. Asbestos gaskets were (and I suppose still are) the best for steam temps to 750*F in the sheet material, and 1,000*F when used as fill in spiral wound gaskets. There are substitutes available, and they work fine. You need to tell your vendor what the operating temperature is, though. Most readily available material is good to about 500*F. Also very important is the thickness of the material. Generally, the higher the pressure, the thinner the gasket (unless you're using the spiral wound ones). The stuff that's 1/64" thick is hard to handle, because it flops all over, like a sheet of paper. 1/16" thick can be cut and handled easily.

Al Letellier

gaskets

We used to use a material called Garlock for steam gaskets. It's a hard composition material like asbestos that can be used up to 150 PSI. Anything over that should be the "spiral wound" type with metal ring, called Flex-a-tallic gaskets, good to 1500PSI. or more depending on structure of the gasket.
If you use fiber composition gaskets, make sure and paint them with a good never-seize compound. They'll seal well and come out a lot easier next time around.

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Aidan (UK)

I don’t know about the US, but the manufacture of all asbestos-containing products is prohibited in the UK.

The asbestos may be in a safe condition in a new gasket. However, when you need to break the flanged joint, you will have a problem. The gasket will probably need to be scraped off the flanges and this will create asbestos debris. You should employ a licensed contractor to do this work and carry out a thorough clean-up of the area. Disposable suits, gloves and respirators. There’s no other safe way to do it. It’s often cheaper to encapsulate the joint and scrap the pipework.

It is not the pieces of asbestos-containing materials that are dangerous, but the microscopic fibres that become airborne when you work on the material in any way.

There are lots of old, but useable, gaskets lurking in boiler room store cupboards, along with rolls of asbestos-containing gland packings.

I had a licensed contractor working in a boiler room recently. He turned up a roll of gland packing in a store room, which was due for disposal. It vanished before he had bagged it up. It was still being used on the site.