Damper Seal Material Is Comfortable in the Cold

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) has developed a rubber damper seal material that, it says, allows shock absorbers to operate at temperatures as low as -40C. The material can solve a brittleness problem that renders many shocks less effectual and more susceptible to damage in cars and trucks operating in cold climates.

FST says the material mixture resists wear better than conventional fluoro rubber damper seals. Conventional fluoro rubber dampers maintain leak tightness at low temperatures, FST says, but may be susceptible to damage.

Arrival of low temperature polymers, cross-linked with peroxides, have helped lower the temperatures where fluoro rubber dampers can be used. But elastomers produced in this way normally show increased wear, FST says.

The company says it found an alternative material after discovering a way to combine typically incompatible materials with one another. They say they have developed a material that offers very stable frictional characteristics that fluctuate little across a temperature range.

The first high-volume application for the material gets underway in spring 2016. FST says a European automaker is using the material in seals for monotube shock absorbers on SUVs.