The Effects of Configuration on Sealing Force Measurement and Compression Stress Relaxation Response

If the amount of sealing force and its retention are a primary criteria used for estimating and predicting the capability of compressive seals, it is important to understand how configurations used in testing and in applications can affect the sealing response of materials. If Compression Stress Relaxation (CSR) testing is to be of value for validation of capability and for specification purposes, different test configurations must provide the same values, and the values determined, should be relevant to the actual applications. It is important to separate material capability from configuration effects to optimize the performance of a material in compressive seals. In this paper, sealing force response was evaluated in different configurations and under different test variable conditions.