FAQ | Product & Materials

Does the use of (Heat) Traced Lines affect the gasket joint?

Heat traced lines pumping materials can present a number of problems for gaskets:

  1. The bolts are usually hotter than the flanges since the heat is applied from outside the pipe. This causes the bolts to expand more than the pipe, which lowers the compressive stress on the gasket.
  2. Any Heat Traced line which is shut down will freeze solid. When the line is reheated on start-up, there is occasionally a plug of solid material blocking a section of the pipe. The heating may cause some areas of the material to liquefy and then expand. The expansion can create extremely high pressures inside the joint if the solid plug is blocking a section of the line.

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