General design features of insulated steel flanges, outlining the objectives and giving the reasons for dimensional controls are briefly outlined in this article. No attempt is made to establish the insulating effectiveness of the assembly because the subject is covered in the preceding article reproduced in this issue of Corrosion.
In addition to securing high quality insulating characteristics, the general design objectives have been safety, durability, adaptability and low cost.
The assembly must present no undue hazards either during or after installation. The micarta washer illustrated in Figure 1, which has a compressive strength of 36,000 pounds per square inch, is the only element of the assembly which can be considered hazardous; when washers are compressed to destruction in laboratory tests, the material changes from a solid to a granular or powdered substance with part of it escaping while some of it remains too compact to serve...
