Aug 29 2015
Today's industrial world thrives on globalization. Yet when it comes to chemicals and materials, regional reporting requirements and regulations can confound companies operating in multiple countries.
Fortunately for customers in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries, Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies offers sealing materials that meet all global regulations. Further, as a global materials expert, the company invests heavily in research and technology that will keep it on the leading edge of generating solutions that will meet diverse sealing needs in every market.
To address this complexity, Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies offers its customers a complete portfolio of advanced elastomeric sealing solutions that perform in challenging environments while concurrently meeting multiple international material standards. Equally important, the company maintains a comprehensive database of the latest regulations and continuously validates its materials against these standards.
Freudenberg offers food and beverage and pharmaceutical industry customers precision molded parts, O-Rings, encapsulated O-Rings, flat gaskets, diaphragms, seals for connections, PTFE rotary shaft seals, chevron seal sets, support rings, and bellows. The company's portfolio of high-performance materials also includes ethylene propylene diene monomer (M-class) rubber (EPDM), Fluoroprene® XP, fluoroelastomers (FKM), Simriz®, nitrile rubber (NBR) and silicone rubber (VMQ).
In addition to superior design and performance measures, Freudenberg-NOK components concurrently meet multiple international material regulations including FDA, USP Class VI, NSF 51/61, 3-A Sanitary Standards and Regulation (EC) 1935/2004. This regulatory flexibility is critical to companies that produce food processing equipment, commercial combi ovens and fryers, beverage dispensing systems and dairy processing machinery, among other systems.
For example, the company's Fluoroprene® XP 41 and EPDM 291 are both EC1935/2004 and NSF 51-certified and support Freudenberg-NOK's global certification strategy by also conforming to important regulations like 3-A® Sanitary Standards, USP Chapter 87 and USP Class VI.
"As a leader in certified food and beverage industry sealing solutions, we understand the material complexities that our customers run into," said Rory Pawl, P.E., director of sales, North America, for the Process Industry sector of Freudenberg-NOK. "Our materials simultaneously address those global standards, allowing our customers to meet regional requirements seamlessly with universal sealing solutions."
Early collaboration with customers is the benchmark, Pawl emphasized. The company collaborates with customers, other material experts and associations from around the world – including VDMA in Germany, EHEDG in Europe, and FPSA in the United States – to develop engineered material solutions that cross borders and address highly technical industry challenges.
"By working with Freudenberg as a partner, companies have access to more than the best seals and gaskets available," Pawl said. "They also have access to Freudenberg's extensive materials regulations expertise, Finite Element Analysis and proprietary efforts to develop solutions that exceed all international requirements."
"We aren't just molding parts, we are engineering technical solutions to some of our customers' toughest material and design challenges," Pawl concluded. "That translates into a lower total cost of ownership for them."