HOUSTON—EGC Critical Components has unveiled its dures line of materials, a family of proprietary thermoplastic polymer composites developed specifically for the manufacture of bushings, bearings and wear rings in pumps.
Released in August, the line consists of dures 150, dures 250, dures A451 and dures XPC2. The 150 and 250 grades are both new compounds developed to meet the need for outstanding chemical, thermal shock and impact and abrasive resistance, the company said.
Dures 150 performs in abrasive conditions up to 150°F while the 250 grade can perform up to 250°F. Both dures A451 and dures XPC2 are legacy materials.
“We've been working on a material for bearings in rotating and stroking applications for about two years now,” said Kurt Hayden, director of engineering and technology development. “We were looking to make a material that would perform in these applications in abrasive conditions at 250°F. We're quite pleased with the results. We found that our material breaks in at a much quicker rate and then stabilizes much quicker than our competitors do.”
EGC claims its dures line of polymers—produced with high performance plastics such as polyether ether ketone (PEEK) or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)—offer greater wear performance than many other materials such as rubber or bronze. EGC Engineer Gary Gibson said typically a nitrile butadiene rubber compound is bonded to the bronze cutless rubber bearing. EGC's dures line is stronger at preventing abrasive particulates contaminating the bearing and the rotating component, which causes the bearing to delaminate.
“We have major customers that are switching to us from some of our competitors,” Gibson said of the dures line, manufactured at EGC's plant in Humble, Texas, just outside of Houston.
EGC is part of Fenner Group P.L.C.'s Advanced Sealing Technologies Division. Its sister business units include CDI Energy Products, AEP Precision Machining and Hallite Seals International.
EGC focuses on high-end thermoplastics and fluoropolymers such as PEEK and PTFE. A few of its products deal in elastomers, specifically ones that deal with elastomer boots or some rubber bonding to other substrates.
CDI deals in upstream oil and gas with about a 60 percent focus on rubber, while Hallite works with polyurethanes.