Hermetic seal

A hermetic seal is the quality of something—a container, structure, etc.—being airtight (excluding passage of air, oxygen, or other gases). Used technically, it is stated in conjunction with a specific test method and conditions of use.

Etymology

The word hermetic comes from the Greek god Hermes, via the vocabulary of alchemy. The alchemists invented a process for making an airtight glass tube, which they used for distillation. The process used a secret seal, whose invention was attributed to the legendary inspiration of alchemy, Hermes Trismegistus.

Uses

Some kinds of packaging must maintain a seal against flow of gases: foods, pharmaceuticals, some chemicals and some consumer goods. The term can describe food preservation practices, such as vacuum packing and canning. Barrier packaging includes containers such as glass, aluminum cans, metal foils, and high barrier plastics.

Buildings designed with sustainable architecture principles use airtight technologies to conserve energy. Under low energy building, passive house, low-energy house, self-sufficient homes, zero energy building, and superinsulation standards, structures must be more air-tight than previously. Air barriers, careful sealing of construction joints and service penetrations (holes for pipes, etc.) achieve this. Airtightness minimizes the amount of warm (or cool) air that can pass through the structure, so the mechanical ventilation system can recover the heat before discharging air externally. Green buildings may include windows that combine triple-pane insulated glazing with argon or krypton gas to reduce thermal conductivity and increase efficiency. In landscape and exterior construction projects, airtight seals protect general service and landscape lighting electrical connections and splices. Many other specific applications must meet airtight standards to be waterproof or vapor-proof for human safety and proper function.

Applications for hermetic sealing include semiconductor electronics, thermostats, optical devices, MEMS, and switches. It is used for electrical or electronic parts that must be secure against water vapor and foreign bodies to maintain proper functioning and reliability.

Hermetic sealing for airtight conditions is used in archiving significant historical items. In 1951, The U.S. Constitution, U.S. Declaration of Independence, and U.S. Bill of Rights were hermetically sealed with helium gas in glass cases housed in the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C.. In 2003, they were moved to new glass cases hermetically sealed with argon.^[1]

Types of epoxy hermetic seals

Typical epoxy resins have pendant hydroxyl (- OH) groups along their chain that can form bonds or strong polar attractions to oxide or hydroxyl surfaces. Most inorganic surfaces—i.e., metals, minerals, glasses, ceramics—have polarity so they have high surface energy. The important factor in determining good adhesive strength is whether the surface energy of the substrate is close to or higher than the surface energy of the cured adhesive.

Certain epoxy resins and their processes can create a hermetic bond to copper, brass, or epoxy itself with similar coefficients of thermal expansion and are used in the manufacture of hermetic electrical and fiber optic hermetic seals. Epoxy hermetic seal designs can be used in hermetic seal applications for low or high vacuum or pressures, effectively sealing gases or fluids including helium gas to very low Helium gas leak rates similar to glass or ceramic. Hermetic epoxy seals also offer the design flexibility of sealing either copper alloy wires or pins, instead of the much less electrically conductive Kovar pin materials required in glass or ceramic hermetic seals.Epoxy hermetic seal has a more limited operating temperature range compared to glass or ceramic seals with an operating range of typically -70C to +125C or 150C, though some hermetic epoxy designs are capable of 200C.

Types of glass-to-metal hermetic seals

When the glass and the metal being hermetically sealed have the same coefficient of thermal expansion, a "matched seal" derives its strength from bond between the glass and the metal's oxide. This type of glass-to-metal hermetic seal is the weaker of the two types and is generally used for low-intensity applications such as in light bulb bases.^[2]

"Compression seals" occur when the glass and the metal have different coefficients of thermal expansion such that the metal compresses around the solidified glass as it cools. Compression seals can withstand very high pressure and are used in a variety of industrial applications.

Ceramic-to-metal hermetic seals

Co-fired ceramic seals are an alternative to glass. Ceramic seals exceed the design barriers of glass to metal seals due to superior hermetic performance in high stress environments requiring a robust seal. Choosing between glass versus ceramic depends on the application, weight, thermal solution and material requirements.

Glassware sealing

Sealing solids

A Taper Joint Stopper with PTFE Sealing Ring. Optical transparency of the narrow sealing ring pressured by glass joint (right).

Glass taper joints can be sealed hermetically with PTFE sealing rings,.^[3] o-rings (optionally encapsulated o-rings), or PTFE sleeves,^[4] sometimes used instead of grease that can dissolve into contamination. PTFE tape, PTFE resin string, and wax are other alternatives that are finding widespread use, but require a little care when winding onto the joint to ensure a good seal is produced.

Grease

Grease is used to lubricate glass stopcocks and joints. Some laboratories fill them into syringes for easy application. Two typical examples: Left – Krytox, a fluoroether-based grease; Right – a silicone-based high vacuum grease by Dow Corning.

A thin layer of grease made for this application can be applied to the ground glass surfaces to be connected, and the inner joint is inserted into the outer joint such that the ground glass surfaces of each are next to each other to make the connection. In addition to making a leak-tight connection, the grease lets two joints be later separated more easily. A potential drawback of such grease is that if used on laboratory glassware for a long time in high-temperature applications (such as for continuous distillation), the grease may eventually contaminate the chemicals.^[5] Also, reagents may react with the grease,^[6][7] especially under vacuum. For these reasons, it is advisable to apply a light ring of grease at the fat end of the taper and not its tip, to keep it from inside the glassware. If the grease smears over the entire taper surface on mating, too much was used. Using greases specifically designed for this purpose is also a good idea, as these are often better at sealing under vacuum, thicker and so less likely to flow out of the taper, become fluidic at higher temperatures than Vaseline (a common substitute) and are more chemically inert than other substitutes.

Cleaning

Ground glass joints are translucent when physically free of debris and clean. Solvents, reaction mixtures, and old grease show up as transparent spots. Grease can be removed by wiping with an appropriate solvent; ether, methylene chloride, ethyl acetate, or hexanes work well for silicone- and hydrocarbon-based greases. Fluoroether-based greases are quite impervious to organic solvents. Most chemists simply wipe them off as much as possible. However, some fluorinated solvents can remove fluoroether greases, but are more expensive than laboratory solvents.

Testing

Standard test methods are available for measuring the moisture vapor transmission rate, oxygen transmission rate, etc. of packaging materials. Completed packages, however, involve heat seals, joints, and closures that often reduce the effective barrier of the package. For example, the glass of a glass bottle may have an effective total barrier but the screw cap closure and the closure liner might not.

See also

Look up hermetic seal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Building insulation
• Glass-to-metal seal
• Heat sealer
• Permeation

Notes