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In automotive, aerospace, fuel-system and industrial sealing applications, customers sometimes encounter a practical problem:
The silicone rubber seal swells after contact with fuel. What material should be considered instead?
The answer should not start with a grade number.
It should start with the actual fluid and operating conditions.
“Oil resistant” or “fuel resistant” is not enough information for material selection.
The actual medium may be:
Different fluids can interact differently with elastomers.
Therefore, the first question should be:
What specific fluid will contact the rubber?
If a particular test fluid or standard is used, that information is also useful.
When an elastomer is exposed to a fluid, changes may occur in volume, mass, hardness or mechanical properties.
For a sealing component, excessive volume change may affect:
This is why fluid resistance should be evaluated as an application property rather than simply a material label.
Short-term contact and continuous immersion are different operating conditions.
Useful questions include:
This information helps define the actual material requirement.
Fluid resistance should also be evaluated together with temperature.
Room-temperature fuel exposure and prolonged fuel exposure at elevated temperature may represent very different conditions.
If the application also involves cold starting, high-temperature operation or temperature cycling, these requirements should be considered together.
When conventional silicone rubber does not provide sufficient resistance to fuels, oils or certain solvents, while silicone-type temperature characteristics are also required, FVMQ fluorosilicone rubber can be evaluated.
KIMITER MY110F Fluorosilicone Gum is intended for fluorosilicone formulations requiring resistance to fuels, oils and related media.
However, this does not mean that FVMQ should automatically be selected whenever fuel is present.
Suitability should be confirmed according to the specific fluid, temperature, formulation and finished-part requirements.
For a fuel-resistant elastomer recommendation, provide:
This information provides a much stronger basis for material selection than simply requesting an “oil-resistant silicone rubber.”
It depends on the specific fluid, temperature, exposure conditions and acceptable property changes.
That is an oversimplification. FVMQ has a different chemical structure and fluid-resistance profile, and final properties depend on the formulation.
This should not be assumed. Performance depends on the fluid, temperature, exposure time and test conditions.
A preliminary material direction may be possible, but the exact fuel, temperature, exposure time and finished-part requirements should also be provided.
Compare the existing material and candidate under the same fluid, temperature, exposure and finished-part test conditions.
Fuel-resistant elastomer selection starts with understanding the actual fluid and operating conditions—not simply choosing the material with the strongest “oil resistance” claim.
