Wacky World of Rubber: How Trelleborg, teens sealed a spot in the world record book

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions officials say their customers really value the fact they can build a large O-ring without the need for a specific tool.

So do the high school students at Tewkesbury School in England, who got an unforgettable lesson in material science, manufacturing capabilities and air-dropping expenses when they helped the Trelleborg staff set a Guinness world record for the largest O-ring.

The previous record of 250 meters was obliterated after the team—made up of young engineering students and corporate engineering experts—produced and placed a 1,194-ft. O-ring around the medieval Tewkesbury Abbey.

The feat happened last year, but I just learned about it last month from Trellborg staff at the Medical Design & Manufacturing West trade show. As the mom of a student who has been on a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) path at school, I know how passionate kids get about these hands-on projects, and I figured a few more kudos were in order.

This team surely went to great lengths to circle the landmark abbey, which dates back to the early 12th century and has almost the same dimensions as Westminster Abbey. Employees from the Tewkesbury facility, which produces standard and customer elastomer parts for the aerospace, semiconductor and niche industrial markets, coached the 20 students with engineering aspirations about designing, costing and producing O-rings.

The record was within reach because Trelleborg has a proprietary manufacturing process called FlexiMold that allows giant O-rings to be produced without dedicated tooling. The company staff decided to go for it to both demonstrate Trelleborg's capabilities and to help the community better understand what they do.

The students, who were mostly 13- and 14-year-olds, got a tour of the plant, and then were involved with designing the record O-ring out of EPDM. They learned the material is widely used for sealing because of its resistance to heat, water and steam, alkali, mild acidic and oxygenated solvents, ozone and sunlight. And, they learned O-rings can seal practically all liquids and gases, and that large O-rings are used across many industries, such as chemical and hydrocarbon, pharmaceutical and electronics.

The record O-ring reportedly took four weeks to design, cost and plan and two weeks to manufacture. The students came up with a few ideas to get the O-ring around the abbey as they considered their options and the costs involved.

"We thought to lift it with a helicopter or something but that would be quite expensive," one student said in a company video.

Drones also were ruled out as a feasible way to raise the ring, position it above the abbey and lower it into place.

Suggestions to look into catapults also got the ax.

The team decided to move forward using a mobile vulcanizing unit, which Trelleborg says provides the same integrity as a molded O-ring. The EPDM O-ring was rolled onto a drum and taken to the abbey, where it was laid around the building. The two ends then were joined the by vulcanizing.

The vulcanization process calls for prepping the two ends with a chemical and clamping them together with vulcanized sheets in a heated die.

The integrity of the O-ring was independently verified by Artis, an elastomer consultancy based in the United Kingdom. Then, the circumference of the O-ring was measured by an industrial wire-measuring machine, and the record was confirmed by an adjudicator from the Guinness Book of Records.

Oh, and this O-ring record rounded out a long list of fascinating and historically significant facts about the abbey, whose founder died in 1107 before it was finished. Robert FitzRoy, the earl of Gloucester and an illegitimate son of King Henry I, carried on construction of the abbey, which is considered one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in Britain.

Many aristocrats of the area were buried and memorialized there, including Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, the son of King Henry VI. The prince was killed in the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, and is the only Prince of Wales to die in battle.

In 1539, the town's people saved the abbey from being reduced to a roofless ruin after it had been surrendered by the last abbot to commissioners of King Henry VIII. The Crown planned to salvage and melt down the bells and lead roof to make cannons for warships.

However, the townspeople insisted the abbey was a parish church and they had a right to keep it. They accepted an offer to buy the abbey for the value of the bells and roof. The price came to £453.

Fast forward 480 years, and a different material—specifically, EPDM 2275—brought the town together for an educational feat.

And, this time, the material was recycled.

"The original seal was chopped up and laser printed with the date of the world record,. Those pieces were made into key rings that were presented to all involved in achieving the award."