COVER STORY: CDI PRODUCTS
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OUR CUSTOMERS’ WINS ARE OUR WINS.
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CDI Products is a sealing solutions provider that produces high-performance polymers and flexible graphite products across multiple industries and applications, including oil & gas, energy, aerospace, semiconductors, refineries, petrochemical plants, and medical applications.“ In essence, our sealing products protect the OEMs whose equipment we support, the environments that equipment operates within, and the employees and communities who work in and around that equipment each day,” said Schoeffler.
While many sealing companies offer standard products, CDI directs its expertise towards materials and product design, application knowledge, and collaborating with its customers on applications that are challenging yet groundbreaking.“ We focus on demanding applications in emerging markets like hydrogen, LNG, and alternative fuels. This is where we are different. We want to tackle the challenge of pushing new technologies past what is expected,” said Hedger. CDI’ s material science technologists and engineers collaborate with its customers to pursue evolutionary ventures and develop innovative products with precise specifications.
Ward works with valves and aerospace applications while other members of the CDI team are specialists in other areas, but the entire team understands the dynamics of the different applications. Collaborating with customers in corresponding markets allows CDI to deliver what customers need and meet specifications wherever they are. So, timelines can vary wildly.“ Our agility as an organization is driven by our customers’ needs and expectations.
That’ s at the heart of strong our customer partnerships.” explained Schoeffler.
Attaining ISO Qualification
Achieving a level of tightness of Class AH using helium is an immense achievement for CDI. ISO 15848-1 is the standard for testing valve stem seal leakage through a series of mechanical and thermal cycles. The purpose of this standard is to evaluate the degree to which a valve can seal gas, preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere. Helium is a safe gas that is typically used as the test medium to mimic methane without the inherent risks involved with using a combustible gas. However, helium poses its own challenge, as the extremely small helium atoms are far more difficult to seal than the larger methane molecules. The gas also permeates through materials, adding to the sealing difficulty. Couple this with the linear motion the seals see when the valve is opened and closed, and achieving Class AH tightness becomes seemingly impossible.“ There is a dynamic interaction between the seals and the stem, which led to CDI having the proper design criteria, geometry, and materials to ensure that the helium does not pass by the seal assembly during the dynamic cycles. It surpasses anything we have done so far,” explained Ward.“ Previously, Class AH had been only achieved using metal bellows where the only measured leakage is through the metal itself. Having polymer seals achieve this tightness class means our customers can use simpler, more traditional valves in applications requiring fugitive emissions certification.”
JUNE 2025 • FUGITIVE EMISSIONS JOURNAL 7