Spiral Wound Gaskets on Pressurized Lube Oil Systems

[AlaskanME]

What are the risks of spiral wound gaskets with graphite filler in compressor and motor bearing lube oil service? I know API 614 says that for lube oil systems under ANSI class 300: flat, non-asbestos type and, for ANSI class 600: spiral wound with non-asbestos filler, 304 or 316 wingdings and external centering ring are to be used.

 

[JJPellin]

For the most part, all of our lube oil and seal oil systems use spiral wound gaskets on the oil piping. Our piping specifications require it. I am not aware of any problems using these gaskets in oil piping systems. We probably have at least 45 or 50 lube oil systems on large Special Purpose machines and I do not recall ever seeing any problem with the use of spiral wound gaskets (if properly installed).

Johnny Pellin

 

[AlaskanME]

One guy mentioned that graphite can contaminate the lube oil, but I could never find any source to verify that. Co-workers are worried that we have a non-compliant API614 lube oil system. Thank you for the reassurance. I do not see an issue with it either especially since many of our lube systems already have spiral wound gaskets.

 

[mk3223]

IMO, the API614 specifies the general type of the gaskets for the oil lubrication system service. Since the spiral wound gasket is acceptable for CL600, it should be acceptable for under CL300.