The History of the Blue-Max® Boiler Gasket
Although an exact date cannot be attached to the first use of folded woven brass wire reinforced asbestos boiler gaskets, it’s use in steam boilers up to 450 PSI (3102 kPa) and temperatures to 500 degrees F (260 C) is widely documented from the early 1940s through the latter 1980s.
Albeit other materials such as homogeneous elastomers and spiral wound gaskets were utilized during this period, and still are, the versatile folded woven asbestos was by far the most popular boiler gasket used.
Beginning in the early 1980s when asbestos came under fire in the USA as a carcinogen, a search was launched for alternative materials with our objective being to manufacture a folded woven non-asbestos brass wire reinforced boiler gasket with the same values as the asbestos.
Fiberglass was thought to be the obvious answer. Unfortunately this was not the case. Through numerous tests and failures it was determined that not only did the glass fiber fracture under load, it would not stick to the rubber compound.
After three years of testing various synthetic fibers and blends thereof the exact materials and combination was discovered. Mission accomplished!
Why is the Blue-Max® blue? Since all folded woven asbestos gaskets including all our failed attempts at non-asbestos were white with a talc powder dusting, unfortunately, when the market was presented with yet another white non-asbestos boiler gasket (“that really works this time I promise”) the market was not interested.
A blue pigment was added to the elastomer compound, re-introduced to the market and accepted. To date since its introduction in June of 1987 over six million Blue-Max® boiler gaskets have been sold worldwide.
A couple other unique benefits the Blue-Max® offers over other folded woven gaskets is the fact that size is stamped in each gasket for positive identification, and a PTFE jacket is applied to each gasket for ease of removal.
Finally, Blue-Max® folded woven gasket material is manufactured under certification to ISO-9002-94 standards and is audited annually by the Nuclear Procurement and Issues Committee (NUPIC).
