Floating Roof Seal for Aboveground Storage Tanks

Textiles Coated International manufactures state-of-the-art flexible PTFE/fiberglass composites and 100% PTFE materials for floating roof seal applications.

Floating roofs are often used with above ground storage tanks that contain petroleums. Between the floating roof and sidewall of the tank, a flexible sealing material is required. Elastomers like urethanes have been commonly chosen as this material due to their ruggedness and low cost. Corrosive additives to the petroleums like MTBE, however, destroy the chemically-susceptible elastomeric products.

The floating roof seal industry has advanced to chemically resistant forms of PTFE-based sealing materials, improving the life of the sealing material and, in some cases, eliminating the concern for chemical degradation. PTFE is a plastic material that is considered to be inert. PTFE/fiberglass composites are good alternatives to elastomeric materials because of the compatibility of fiberglass to petroleums. In other instances, 100% PTFE materials are used in place of PTFE-coated fiberglass and elastomers to ensure that chemical attack will not be a concern, regardless of chemical severity within or external to the tank, for the expected duration of the floating roof.

Photos: (left: LFP, right: Fluorotex 100)

A listing of the PTFE-based materials for floating roof seal applications can be found below: