A new approach for evaluating elastomeric materials for use in high pressure oxygen has been developed. Because this approach replicates the dynamic forces that occur in pressure systems and subjects a specimen to progressive wear, it allows the user to compare wearability and oxygen sensitivity. This method determines if a candidate material ignites before it mechanically fails and provides a relative wearability ranking for that material.

Existing mechanical impact test methods produce data which is useful in screening various materials for oxygen sensitivity. The pass/fail data produced from these tests do not easily translate into a suitable material selection for a particular oxygen application. This new evaluation technique produces both mechanical wear data in combination with sensitivity data which can easily be applied when selecting elastomeric materials for a particular oxygen application.

An explanation of the process as well as sample data are presented.