Chemical Compatibility Guide

Choosing the right sealing material is a critical engineering decision that directly impacts the safety, efficiency and longevity of your equipment. ISMAT's Chemical Compatibility Guide covers nine elastomer and thermoplastic material families — ACM, CR, EPDM, FFKM, FKM, FVMQ, HNBR, NBR and VMQ — evaluated against 847 commonly encountered industrial chemicals.

Whether specifying seals for aggressive oil & gas upstream environments, high-purity pharmaceutical processing, demanding automotive powertrain applications or heavy-duty chemical manufacturing, this guide equips your team with the chemical resistance data needed to make an informed material selection — backed by 40+ years of in-field performance data.

Equipment manufacturers and end users expect sealing systems to operate leak free and to maintain long service life. Reliability is crucial to effective low maintenance cost operations. To find the perfect sealing solution in each individual case both material performance and seal design are critically important. One of the main used material groups for sealings are the elastomers. They show good properties like elasticity or good chemical compatibility. The following tables provide a summary of the various elastomer material groups.

Elastomer performance depends on chemical compatibility. External factors - media exposure, oxygen, ozone, temperature and pressure - degrade material properties and sealing integrity. Without proper material selection, elastomers swell, shrink, harden or fail. That's why chemical compatibility verification is critical before deployment.

Step 1 — Identify your chemical media. Use the A–Z filter or search bar to locate the chemical your sealing component will contact. For mixed media, evaluate each constituent separately and select the material satisfying the most restrictive compatibility requirement across all chemicals present.

Step 2 — Read the compatibility rating. Each row shows suitability of all nine ISMAT material families at ambient temperature. "Very good suitability" means less than 10% change in volume and mechanical properties after prolonged immersion. "Good suitability" signals acceptable performance with minor property changes. "Limited suitability" implies potential degradation — suitable only for short-contact or dynamic conditions with regular inspection. "Unsuitable" indicates significant material attack — avoid entirely.

Step 3 — Verify against operating conditions. Temperature profoundly affects chemical resistance. Materials performing well at ambient temperature may degrade rapidly at elevated temperatures. Consult ISMAT's technical datasheets and contact our engineering team when your application involves temperatures above 100°C, high pressures, rapid pressure cycling or aggressive media concentrations above 50%.