One of the largest salad dressing manufacturers in Japan faced frequent unscheduled downtime due to the premature failure of elastomer seals in its production equipment. The sealing materials, including ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), fluoroelastomers (FKM) and silicone rubber, were becoming swollen and cracked during production by the acetic acid. During the cleaning process, the seals were easily eroded by the caustic cleaning solution.

A visit to the DuPont Performance Elastomers booth at a food machinery trade show in Japan paved the way for the adoption of Kalrez® 6230 by this manufacturer. As a result, Kalrez® seals were evaluated for six months in the production line as well as at the DuPont Performance Elastomers Utsunomiya Application Lab. The Kalrez® seals showed excellent performance in the customer's manufacturing process compared to the incumbent parts. Kalrez® seals are now providing reliable, quality service in the filtration system and the control valve in the mixing and filling process. Kalrez® 6230