Water Pump Gaskets: What are they?

11 December 2017

What are water pump gaskets? Are they fundamentally different from other sealing products? Absolutely, especially when those gaskets are employed in situations that imbue water with added energy. For example, a vehicle water pump gasket handles high temperatures and a coolant load, whereas a marine pump seal resists the encroachment of salt. Back to the main query, just what does this gasket type do for a water pump?

Bookends the Inlet and Discharge Ports 

In simple terms, water pump gaskets seal the flange segments that hook the pump to the inlet and outlet pipes. If water is drawn by a positive displacement mechanism, such as a volute impeller, it’s the job of this seal pair to ensure the coupling between the pump and those ports is tight. Expect the seal to be manufactured from a fairly rigid elastomer, especially if the gasket in question is bound for an application that uses hot water.

Weighing Fluid Medium Variables 

Water is like a blank sheet of paper; we can change it in so many ways. Car water pumps are mixed with coolants while their marine cousins pass a salt-saturated outflow. HVAC water pumps add pressure and greater temperature extremes to the mix. Therefore, the chosen seal material obviously has to match a chosen application. In pressure-sensitive usage fields, the selected material exhibits greater mechanical strength, plus a knack for surviving compressive tightening forces. Other water pump gaskets add chemical corrosion resistance or an intelligently imbued material characteristic that’s designed to resist a specific compound, like salt.

Uniquely Qualified Gasketing Solutions 

A uniform pressure pairs with a certain thermal curve to bully a standard pipe seal as it lays between two flange faces. Okay, a change in fluid state or a transient pressure spike pushes that same seal to its design limits, but those limits will normally hold. Water pump gaskets are a little different. They’re positioned around a mechanically dynamic area, a work zone that churns the water and injects it with centrifugal energy. Surrounded by fastener openings and a wide flange face, plus some gasketing sealant, the seal holds firm despite the internal stresses generated inside the pump.

Water pump gaskets, as anyone can guess, are found in every industrial and commercial sector. Even cars have water pumps so that the engine runs cool. HVAC rooms are positively loaded with belt-driven variants, then there are marine pumps driving water through outboard engines so that a svelte boat can skip across a lake surface. It’s absolutely imperative that these gaskets are installed properly, for water leaks can cripple all of these applications.

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