Making a seal between two elastomer faces

[CocytusME]

Hey guys,

I need to make a seal between two elastomer surfaces (specifically polyurethane). At first I simply thought to use an o-ring but my manufacturer told me the seal will fail sooner rather than later because I'm not making a seal between two "rigid" faces.

How else can I make this seal? It only needs to hold 100psi MAX.

 

[Compositepro]

I do not understand your diagram. Which parts are elastomer? In any case, use a steel o-ring. For a seal to work, the contact pressure between two surfaces must be greater than the fluid pressure. And the surfaces must conform to each other.

 

[CocytusME]

It's a section view of a product. The orange is an elastomer material (polyurethane) and I'm trying to make a seal between two faces.

I had no idea a steel o-ring was an actual thing. Thanks for mentioning that.
On that note however, they aren't on mcMaster. Could I just use a thin washer? Do you know what a proper steel oring is called and where to find it?

 

[Compositepro]

Yes, a washer would be a square-section o-ring.
How are you clamping the parts together? If you are using screws on solid PU parts you will likely not have any clamping pressure between the screw locations unless you have a metal clamp ring.

 

[CocytusME]

Thank you for the help. Because of that exact reason, I ended up dropping the whole design in favor of a design that has the PU lined within a std pipe shell. This way I can make the seal using a std flange and gasket. [Solved]

The design looks great, now I just have a seal problem elsewhere

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=372332