Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What kind of lubricant can be used with the ASP O-Ring Installation Machine?
A. In general, any lubricant with a viscosity between 50 and 350 centistokes. Our standard lubrication is silicone oil. However, we have also built machines using brake fluid, mineral oil, motor oil, PAG oil, transmission fluid, and vegetable oil. Let us know if you have a lubricant other than those listed; we will evaluate it for compatibility with our equipment.
Q. I can't have any kind of oil on my part. Can I still use the ASP for my application?
A. Yes. The ASP can use alcohol as an alternative to an oil-based lubricant.
Q. I need to use grease in my application. Can the ASP handle this?
A. In most cases, yes. The ASP can be adapted to apply grease to the O-ring during installation. Contact us to discuss your particular application.
Q. My O-rings are already pre-lubricated. Can I use them with the ASP?
A. No. In order for the O-rings to properly feed into the installation head, they must be free of oil, grease, flashing, static electricity, and other foreign materials.
Q. What criteria must an O-ring or seal meet to work with the ASP?
A. O-rings must be free of oil, grease, flashing, static electricity, and foreign materials prior to their installation. They must also be flat within 30% of the cross section of the O-ring.
Q. How does the ASP prevent my O-ring or seal from being damaged during installation?
A. During hand installation, an assembler may use an object such as a pick or tweezers to assist in seal installation, sometimes resulting in damage to the seal. They may also roll the seal down a hand mandrel thus twisting the O-ring during installation.
The ASP is designed to install your O-ring or seal without cutting, nicking, twisting, or overstretching. All seal contact surfaces are ground and polished to avoid any sharp edges that could damage the seal. The lubricating system ensures that the seal slides, not rolls, down the mandrel and onto the part. The seal is not stretched more than necessary to facilitate installation onto your part.
Q. My seal is not an O-ring. Can the ASP install anything other than O-rings?
A. Yes. The ASP can be adapted to install face seals, quad rings, dove tail seals, lip seals, braze rings, Teflon seals, snap rings, cup seals, spiral rings, square seals, and retaining rings.
Q. I need to install an O-ring into my part internally. Will your equipment work for this kind of application?
A. Yes. AIS also manufactures equipment for internal applications. See our Internal Equipment page for details.
Q. I need to install the same O-ring on multiple positions onto my part. How does the ASP handle this?
A.We have several options available, depending upon your application.
Option 1 - An additional mandrel can be purchased for each installation depth and you can batch the parts.
Option 2 - AIS will mount a part shuttle to the front of the machine to accommodate the various installation depths. This option provides a finished part without the need to process your parts in batches
Option 3 - In some cases, AIS can provide hand fixtures that adjust to hold the part at varying depths during seal installation. Again this option eliminates the need to batch parts.
Option 4 - Our Vertical Placement Module (VPM), used in conjunction with the ASP, can be designed to automatically install an O-ring at multiple depths onto a part.
Q. I want to use the ASP to install several different size O-rings. How can I do this?
A. With the purchase of an additional head assembly. An ASP chassis can have multiple head assemblies, each dedicated to one size O-ring. Changeover from one size to the next can be accomplished in less than 5 minutes.
Q. How much does an ASP O-Ring Installation Machine cost?
A. The cost of each system is dependent upon your application requirements. Contact us to discuss your application with our sales personnel.
Q. What information do you need to issue a quotation?
A. If possible, we like to review engineering drawings of both the part and O-ring as well as samples of each. We also need to know what kind of lubrication you want to run in the machine.