Challenger O Ring Material

Report of the presidential commission on the space shuttle challenger accident 6 june 1986 volume 1 page 145 link color added.

Challenger o ring material.

The temperature at the time of the challenger liftoff was 32 degrees f. If the gland has been designed and machined properly. November 1981 o ring erosion discovered after second shuttle flight. Viton is the registered trade mark of.

The disaster of challenger mission sts 51 l was the result of human engineering. Number of o ring incidents vs. July 1985 thiokol orders new steel billets for new field joint design. In the parker o ring handbook ord 5700 paragraph 4 0 says it has been said that o rings are the finest static seals ever developed perhaps the prime reason for this is because they are almost human proof.

Joint temperature incidents when o rings failed source. Feynman s famous c clamp experiment. Fkm is the short form for the fluoroelastomer category according to the american standard astm. Feynman now believed that he had the solution but to test it he dropped a piece of the o ring material squeezed with a c clamp to simulate the actual conditions of the shuttle into a glass of ice water.

January 24 1985 shuttle flight that exhibited the worst o ring blowby. The joint failed because at cold temperatures the silicone o ring material lost its resilience and took a set.