Whether you know it or not, you have probably used many products in your lifetime that contain at least one o-ring. These ubiquitous and highly important donut-shaped rings, which are made from a type of elastomer, are used in a wide variety of industries.
As ThomasNet.com notes, o-rings are cheap, easy to install and are tough enough to withstand some pretty harsh conditions, which makes them an ideal part to help prevent leaks in a number of products. Basically, if a fluid or gas needs to be sealed inside some type of device or machine, an o-ring is a great part for the job.
Common Uses for O-Rings
O-rings are commonly used in a number of industries; everything from automotive and medical devices to pharmaceutical and aerospace. But while the o-ring can be found in a plethora of products, one size definitely does not fit all. For instance, o-ring manufacturer Apple Rubber offers more than 7,000 sizes of o-rings and has a tooling process that allows them to add more sizes on a daily basis. For companies that use a lot of o-rings in their manufacturing processes, ordering a large number of o-rings in their inventory in a number of different sizes makes a lot of sense.
Less Common Uses for O-Rings
If you own a car repair company, you are probably used to stocking and using o-rings inside engines and air conditioning systems. Or if you run an HVAC company, you likely use o-rings every day to fix air conditioning units. Even that scuba diving store that is located in the same business complex as your company is using o-rings. They are typically found in scuba gear like the oxygen tank, and checking to be sure they are in good working order is part of the pre-dive safety checklist. Since it goes without saying that scuba divers will want their o-rings to be in perfect working order, they should learn how to replace their oxygen tank’s o-rings.
Video game aficionados also appreciate o-rings; they can be purchased and placed on the stem of each keyboard key’s cap, and then reinstalled to fully set the o-ring in place. For people who run a computer shop or game shop, keeping o-rings in stock can help you take care of customers who either do a lot of typing and want to reduce the noise of the constant key tapping, and/or have less finger fatigue when playing games. People in the tattoo industry also use o-rings in their tattoo guns; the o-ring will help lessen the vibration that the ink gun makes, and helps the tattoo artist have a steadier hand when applying the ink to their client. If the o-ring is missing or getting old, the tattoo gun will rattle and hum and not work as well, so it’s important for these o-rings to be replaced often, just like they should be in any industry and product that uses them.
O-Rings: Small But Mighty…and Found All Over
Even if you don’t use o-rings in your specific business, chances are good you know plenty of other company owners who do, and/or use products every day that require o-rings to function properly. O-rings may be small and inexpensive, but they can literally mean the difference between life and death in some cases, and keep many other products working properly 24/7.
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Founder Dinis Guarda
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