Saint-Gobain Seals Opens Large Diameter, OmniSeal® Seal Production Facility in Kontich, Belgium

Garden Grove, CA, February 20, 2016 --(PR.com)-- Saint-Gobain Seals has opened a new large diameter seal production facility at its Kontich, Belgium site in order to further improve quality and reduce lead-times significantly for large diameter, polymer OmniSeal® seals. With this new production facility, Saint-Gobain Seals aims to strengthen the service to the Energy sector for applications such as FPSO turret swivels, large engineered valves, wind turbines, compressors and turbines. The dedicated area includes a new compression-molding press, sintering ovens, a large diameter CNC lathe, bespoke flexible forming and welding technology for Meldin® 5301 PEEK based components, special transportation racks and a large table for assembly and inspection. The state-of-the-art equipment operates in a climatized environment to guarantee optimal dimension consistency throughout the manufacturing process until final shipping.

Christophe Valdenaire, Global Market Manager - Oil & Gas said, “The opening of our large diameter production cell is an important step forward in our efforts to offer our customers sealing solutions that deliver a consistent level of performance even in large diameters up to 3,000 mm (118 inch). Our large diameter seals can be delivered with full material qualification, including NORSOK M-710 and certification according to API 6A PSL3 level.”

The addition of the Kontich production facility follows Saint-Gobain Seals’ strategic plan to offer global support to meet emerging oil and gas market requirements and technology demands. In July 2015, they opened a technical and sales office in Houston, Texas, and in September 2015, the world's first subsea gas compression station became operational in the Åsgard field offshore Norway using Saint-Gobain Seals’ OmniSeal® seals, which were certified for the axial control valves portion of the gas compression systems that will go on stream at a water depth of 3,000 meters. The compression station is a major move forward in powering processing technologies on the seafloor and creating new possibilities to extract hydrocarbons in deeper, harsher waters, further from shore.

Saint-Gobain Seals continues to design and manufacture critical sealing parts to provide precise fit and confidence to customers over the lifetime of the product such as their ISO 15848-1 compliant, OmniSeal® stem sealing solution, which is targeted to lower fugitive emissions within ON/OFF valves. Their high-performance sealing solutions are continually used in demanding conditions from cryogenic to 315°C (600°F), 50,000 psi, 10 to 30+ years life and strict industry specifications. Their core competencies include: deep and ultra-deepwater production, high pressure and high temperature, harsh chemicals, Rapid Gas Decompression resistance, long durability at extreme temperature and sour gas concentrations, proprietary Fluoroloy® fluoropolymer compounds qualified to NORSOK M-710 and to API 6A F.1.13 specifications, metal energizers NACE MR01-075 approved alloys for use in sour gas service, cryogenic temperatures and designs compliant with low fugitive emission international standards ISO-15848 and Shell MESC SPE 77-312.

About Saint-Gobain Seals (www.seals.saint-gobain.com)
Saint-Gobain Seals is a strategic business unit under Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics’ Engineered Components SOA (sector of activity); our parent company, Saint-Gobain, is one of the world’s top 100 industrial groups as well as one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the world with 350 years of excellence. With more than 50 years of manufacturing experience and an established global presence (with strategic sites in Garden Grove, California, USA; Kontich, Belgium; and Minhang, Shanghai, China), we offer a diverse range of critical parts for extreme applications.