Custom Plan Views

O-rings are successfully used in rectangular or non-circular groove patterns as long as the groove design follows a few basic principles.

A non-circular face seal footprint might also be called a race track groove, a wandering groove or a custom plan view. When using a seal with a round inner diameter and a round cross section will work. The main design consideration is the corner or smallest radius the seal must bend around. The inside radius should be at three times the O-ring cross sectional diameter. In a perfect world, six times greater is even better.

What we want to avoid is over-stressing the O-ring around the bend, or causing a corner crease which increases likelihood of corner leakage. Designing the radius at six times the cross section will minimize the bending stress, resulting in increased service life.