DEAR NORM:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67B00511R000100180010-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 20, 1962
• Content Type: LETTER

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20 Septetebex 162
&-alased herewith is a ,espy o! trip repmxt
to the West Coast. Ern pages 2 and 3 you `rill ii~ad reports on
elastomer seals for hat vaQUUnrs. Although sae are contiauing
to follow any reasonably hopeful alternative to the welded glass
to metal seals, you can see that outgassing is a very serious
probl+esa and it would appear it precludes any other solution.
gasat regards
mb
Enclosure
cc: EP'K
ELT k%~
STAT
STAT
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~~X cY3y8~
COPY! OF Y
T ft i P B B P O H T
September 17, 1962
Yahicle Contractor: add I arrived oa iiednesda morning
anddelivered the tvo window and associated parts to Don
acted ss if he Wen surprised to see us and suggested that we just leave
the WindoWS there. We explained that the purpose of our trip vas to:
A. Helg in installing flee windows in the hatch
B. Participate in initial flight tests, if possible.
He said that ha preferred to install the window is the hatch in
the Q that no decision as to flight test would be made until the
flight test meeting which Was proposed and will probably be held during
the week of Septeaber 17, and that he falt that no flight testing world
be done until after October 1. lie looked at the hatch and saw that
there is quite a lot of Work that has to be done on it before the window
could be installed. The notch for the tabulation had not been cut in
the ribs, the hatch had not been sealed or pressure tested, and insulation
has not been applied. Don felt that there had barn ample coordination
through our drawings so that work preliminary to actual installation of
the window would proceed satisfactorily. He felt that it world he wise
for Perkin-Elmer people to be rese~at when the window is fitted to the
hatch whet r it is in the or at his facility. Upon consultation
with ~ it was deci o leave the windows there and not pursue
the matter of installation say further since itwes quite obvious that
they were not prepared to install the windows at this timd.
Some time was spent wit discussing thermodynamic aroblems
on 4/13/62 (date of draWiug is 9/8/61). 'Thin docnmest is the results
of s con4uter program showing two dimensional temperatures in type threw
windavs. Our concern Was that the: outer temperature on this document
was noted at 440? rather than the S00? We have been using. It was ex-
plained to us by iRen that they wre ~eore concerned with gradiaats in this
calculation, and used tha temperature of 439? as an input based on
certain flight parameters which are rat representative of me,~timoDn,
Furthermore, the emissivity apon which tYesa temperatures are based was
STAT
STAT
STAT
STAT
STASTAT
STAT
STAT
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~ ?
September 17, 19b2
not necessarily correct. Ben assured ua that S00o is still the best guess
as to the operating tenperatura. lie doss not expect that operation will
exceed this tes~eratura by any significant amount.
indicated that they had a requirement for gold coating on STAT
ttuir~elds.and wars ?-- wring such a coating.
A meeting was set up with and oarselves. Z STAT '
gave them the history of our coating devalopmeat sad indicated that we
were in a position to provide a coating and that Liberty Mirror was in
a position to provide a coating. I gave them all the information that
was necessary that they could contact Liberty Mirror themselves, nod
caatioaed them about the possibly connection with our two companies. I
also indicated that I would try to provide them with three types of
samples of our coating so that they could conduct testa to determine
whether our coatings would be suitable for Chair applications. (I initiated
action oa 9/17 at P-E to obtain the requirsd samples) I think that we
should make as $ttempt to get samples to them as quickly as possibly
since this is as area in which they could use our help and need it, and is
which there is, in my opinioa~, a great deal of future profitable business.
ih isbquired once again whether the Vehicle People had any 8120-VCA
titaniuaa in widths of 14" or greater. ?hey did not have any nor do .they
anticipate obtaining say is the future for this program.
I discussed the aspect of elastomer seals at high temperatures
with Don. Don called in the person at his facility who Has concerned
with sealing. ?heir sealing applications are primarily on a pressure
type particularly fuel seals and gas seals. They do not have ~vsn a
talking acquaintsncc with the problems involving vacuum sealing. They
indicated that the ~i sealing which was supplied to us by Don was developed
as a fuel sealer, and was not at all suitable for vacuum applications at
high temperatures. They indicated very definitely that they thought it
would be a waste of time to teat this material far this application.
Based oa reading the data sheet and on this inforsuatian, I do not think
it would be worthwhile to conduct any test of this material at this time.
Parker Seal Co: an Wei. set with Engineering STAT
Manager and with Project Sales Manager. The following STAT
areas were discussed:
1. Tde described our sealing problem in detail sad explained our time-
teaperature-pressure requirements. That' da not have any elastomers that
will meet our requirements. Specific~j~i Viten is unsuitable because it
has 1002 compression set after a short time (in the order of sae hour)
at SOOoY. This means that even the new devalopmant of degassed Viton
rings offer negligible eneouragemeat, since the elastomer itself loses
its physical properties at this tamQeratnre. On the other hand, silicone
rings, which Mill withstand these temperatuxas for long periods of time,
both outgas at a high rata, and are eztremaly peraeable (50 times the
permeability of Viton). They feel that no present material which they
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September 17, 1962
have or are cognisant of. will be suitable in our application, if used
in a conventional sealing method.
2. We atteaQted to obtain test d:ta for outgaasi~g and permeability
rates for their best materials, at 5O8?F. The a+aximum temperatures of
their tests is about 170?`E, and na data is available for S0O'DF. We did
obtain sooe c covering the range 720l- to 170oF, and these will be
given to u~ Hower, they poiat~ed ont that extrapolation may not STAT
be valid, since these curves cover a tesprratare where the material main-
tains its physical integrity, and ~o~s are inters where the
materials break doom. They gave us the names of at Wright STAT
Field ASBC>NE-1, extension 28108, icon-Metallic ~ateriala I,eb, Wright-
Psttereon Air Force B:se. He is cogaizaat of overall developments in
this field. In addition, they indicated that we evnld contact ~ of STAT
ECA who worked closely With them in develops their outgassed O-rings.
(It is interesting to note that we contacted almost a year STAT
ago on this very subject and obt:ixud information from hia+ at that time
which is essentially consistent with the information we are now obtaining
from 0 A copy of our telephone conversation of last year with Dr. STAT
is attaeh~. ) STAT
3. Since it was obvious that no conventional techniques employing
elastoaiers were suitable for our application, we tried to think of how
elastomtrs could be used using new techniques to make them suitable for
our application. ?he only elastamer Which seems to maintain its physical
properties at SOOo is silicone. Tire problem with silicone is that it
is per~eeable. If a metallic coati.ag completely encasing the silicone
O-ring could be developed, the problem of permeability would vanish.
Parker indicated that they have had soeoe experience and success in
applying an aluminwr. and gold coating aver silicone O-rings and silicone
gask-0-seals. This seemed to all concerned to be a very interesting
possibility and one Which may Nava a very high probability of success.
approach could be determined. The details of what would be required
were established. They shall make circular gask-0-seals for us os~ s
cost basis, and we shall test these sealed to quartz specimens which
with them. The use of the round oYU 18 to be preferred because of the
small tooling charge and the ease of making the test setup. If the
round ones prove ?atisfactory, they will supply a 7 x 10 configuration
for our teat. If this praxes satisfactory, it is anticipated that tooling
will be made for producing a 14 x 20 gask-0-seal configuration. I am
proceeding with the necessary drawings so that they can submit s quota-
tion to us foz making the initial circular gask-0-seals employs metalized
(aluminum and gold) silicone materials. It is my intention that
will carry out the testing program under the direction of
STAT
STAT
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-~
TRIP REPaRT 4
September 17, 1962
tie discussed how we might obtain quicker deliveries on critical
items and establish a relationship which I think wfll be beneficial stn
the future. I think this visit was very worth while from alI standpoints.
3wedlow Inc.: iie met with Supervisor, Contracts
Administration and Kariagtr, Quality Assurance.
Swedlow is the manu acturer from wham we obtained the 37-9R phenolic
leas lami tea which are used in th+e non-vaeuwn configuration. irlr.
seems to be one of their chief technical people. We discussed
tt them our application to be certain that we are using the proper
material. It appears that we are, althar+gh this particular material
has some manufacturing difficulties in the thicker pieces. The advan-
tage, of this material is that it maintains a very high strength for
long term exposure at SOOoF. There are other materials which are more
cotsmonly used, whose strength decreases rapidly after exposure at SQO?
for more than ten hours. These materials are trot much cheaper, but more
easily manufactured.
They have not completed a purchase order from us in which they were
required to manufacture one each of five thicknesses of 37-9X. The reason
is they have had difficulties in making the thickest piece. The nature
of the difficulty is that the entrapped gasses cause the piece to de-
Iamiaate during the curin, process. They were on their fourth attempt
to make this piece when we visited them. They felt that if they could
cut out the center prior to curing that the gasses would have a means
of escaping and prevent delamiaation. tie prauided them with a sketch
of how large a center void we could stand.
We discussed in same detail laboratory test results of material pro-
perties that they performed as required by our last purchase order. The
material exibits amazingly good physical properties at high temperatures.
We also went to the laboratory and did a conpresaion test on one piece.
They save us the name of a subcontractor who specializes in fabricating
plastic parts. They find. him very reliable and extremely accurate, and
coa~letely cognizan required for machining this type
of material. :-te is Leed Insulator Company, 711 East
Pico Blvd., Los Axtge es, California. I am going to follow this up and have
them quote on making a non-vacuum 37-9X configuration so that we can
obtain price and delivery information for our records. It would be ex-
tremely useful to have a vendor in that area so that if during flight
test any new parts had to be made, we world have a source available nearyy.
Furthermore, we have experienced difficulty here machining this material,
anti having an experienced vendor would be beneficial.
We had a complete plant tour which we found very interesting. They
make man f h
o t
l
y
e
p
astic parts for missiles and aircraft. They make
canopies and windows for most of the cosmercial as well as military
vehicles. I hishly zecommend that this source of codex plastic parts
be kept in mind for anv annl tc'rt~,., v_v _.-.. ,. M__
STAT
STAT
STAT
STAT
STAT
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autgus~se tre.rticicat Ln Vltan srYa! silicas t~teriatl~, A `r9 trork ;taxs
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priaaaxy c