Kalrez® News 1 - Article 15

DuPont Dow Introduces Kalrez® Bonded Door Seals; Seals Provide Improved Sealing Performance, Easy Installation

DuPont Dow Elastomers is introducing bonded door seals made with Kalrez® perfluoroelastomer parts at Semicon West 2003 in San Francisco.

The bonded door seals not only outperform conventional O-rings for slit and gate valve door seal applications but counter unique problems posed by O-rings. They extend seal life and reduce replacement time during preventive maintenance.

The new bonded door seals will be featured along with Kalrez® Sahara™ 8085 from DuPont Dow at the company's booth (No. 6344) in North Hall at Moscone Convention Center.

Masato Chida, Global Semicon Marketing Manager - Kalrez®, said "DuPont Dow continues to advance sealing technology. The design of our bonded door seals and the performance of Kalrez® Sahara™ 8085 combine for improved sealing performance. "

As an example of optimal seal design, Kalrez® bonded door seals are held in a 'fixed' position unlike conventional O-rings, which reduces rolling and twisting during door actuation. The seal design also has been optimized using finite element analysis (FEA) to minimize high concentrations of localized stresses. As a result, both particle generation and sealing performance are improved significantly over O-rings.

In addition, Kalrez® bonded door seals offer quick and easy assembly/disassembly to mounting bracket; eliminate the need to clean the gland during preventive maintenance after the O-ring has been removed; reduce installation problems such as misalignment, and ensure full part traceability with barcode packaging.

The seals also combine a custom seal design along with the excellent plasma resistance of Kalrez® Sahara™ 8085. The seals are available in Kalrez® Sahara™ 8085 for Etch, Ash, HDPCVD, PECVD, SACVD and metal CVD wafer processing applications.

Kalrez® Sahara™ 8085 was developed specifically for very low particle generation and low weight loss in various applications. Customers say that Kalrez® Sahara™ 8085 has improved wafer yield, in some case, up to 200 percent in applications where highly aggressive environments like NF3 plasma is used in cleaning.

It has not only demonstrated excellent mechanical properties, but also is well-suited for both static and dynamic sealing applications such as bonded slit valve doors, bonded gate valve doors, gas inlets, gas orifice seals and gas feed-through seals.

About DuPont Dow Elastomers

DuPont Dow Elastomers, a global supplier of specialty elastomers with global headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, is a joint venture between the DuPont Company and The Dow Chemical Company with more than US $1 billion in sales. The company is the industry leader in chloroelastomers, ethylene elastomers and fluorinated elastomers, serving the automotive, chemical, construction, general rubber and wire and cable industries.

Kalrez® is a registered trademark of DuPont.

Kalrez® Sahara™ is a registered trademark of DuPont.

* © Photographer: DuPont Performance Elastomers

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