Military Gasket Design
Military gaskets for armored vehicles must account for media, temperature, application, and pressure (MTAP). Defense contractors are familiar with acronyms like MRAP, but gasket designers who include MTAP in their seal designs help support the mission.
Clyde Sharpe
General Manager of Elasto Proxy
Have you ever wondered why the military uses so many acronyms? Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines need to convey information quickly, accurately, and efficiently. Suppliers to the defense industry are also more likely to hear a term such as “MRAP” than the phrase “mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle”. For defense contractors who want to do business with military buyers, mastering these acronyms can be learning a new language. The process may be challenging at times, but the rewards are worth it.
Like any specialized discipline, gasket design has its own language, too. For example, many rubber gaskets are made of synthetic elastomers with names such as Buna-N and EPDM. Published specifications such as ASTM D2000 use letters and numbers to “call out” the properties of vulcanized rubber in a highly-structured way. Units of measure such as durometer (hardness) are sometimes unfamiliar, so buyers and designers may need assistance in order to translate the language of rubber into project specifications.
