flange seal c1910

[calummcb]

My first post,
i am looking at replacing a spool and the drawings we have show the machining on the mating flanges as I have shown on the drawing. Also a drawing says "I.R. joint to S.V.. I have asked several people including the company that made the original valve and spool but no-one has seen anything like it. We have a limited time outage to replace the seal so if anyone has any information/data or any comments that would be appreciated.Fell free to ask for any additional information
regards
Calum

 

[LittleInch]

If it's any consolation I've never seen anything like it either.

I would try someone like saint Gobain or the ductile Iron association

https://www.dipra.org/ductile-iron-pipe-research-association/about-dipra

There might be a similar UK base done, but installed around 1910 it could easily be some very specific design.

I like the square headed bolts as well.

Can't you just repair the existing spool?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[RossABQ]

Is the seal/gasket in the area above the spigot's "dovetail" looking portion? I have seen old steam flanges that had something similar to prevent a direct path in case of a gasket failure, essentially a labyrinth secondary seal.

 

[MintJulep]

Interesting.

It's sort of almost like some of the historical cast iron joints shown in this

http://www.american-usa.com/system/assets/150/original/Section 12_RB.pdf

but not exactly.

But to me it sort of suggests "packing" rather than a gasket as used on contemporary face flanges.

Where was the original equipment made?

 

[Compositepro]

It looks to me to be a metal to metal seal with no gasket required. The wide groove outside of the taper seal area seems it is to allow for any minor leakage to flow to the bottom side of the pipe before dripping. The closest design to this that I am aware of is for mounting chucks onto a lathe. The tapers form an interference fit when the flat faces are clamped together. Such a seal might leak slightly, at first, if there are any imperfections in the seal surfaces. But these would seal soon from particles in the water.

 

[racookpe1978]

Practically speaking, you have three choices: Try to figure out what was the original sealing/packing material and try to duplicate its form, fit, and function. Soft iron perhaps if high temperature service?
2. Machine off the the male "wedge" and attempt a full flat face seal with a modern gasket rated for the 1910 pressure/temperature/fluid service.
3. Machine off the male wedge to a flat surface, cut the female socket to a conventional O-ring groove, and find a compatible O-ring for your pressure, temperature, and fluid service. The O-ring is very, very unlikely to be "catalog perfect" but an over-size O-ring that properly seals the machined groove is "good enough" - even if more expensive to buy a large dia O-ring than a conventional O-ring. (I'm thinking 18 mm is more like a garden hose than the usual 4-8 mm dia.)