Metal seals have been utilized in various forms for centuries due to their reliable performance in withstanding high pressure and high temperature environments. One of the earliest recorded references to metal seals can be found in a patent created in the 1860’s where a metal seal could be used for water, steam or gas piping. However, it is likely that other forms of metal seals were used well before this patent was created. Starting in the 1920’s and 1930’s oil well drilling and production progressed in America and metal ring gaskets were incorporated into oilfield wellhead equipment. By 1936, the American Petroleum Institute (API) issued a Tentative Standard on Ring-Joints for steel Flanges and Flange Unions for use with API Tubular Goods. The American Standards Association (ASA) began compiling the available information on ring gaskets in 1949 and developed the ASA B16.20 standard, which later became known as ASME B16.20 and included design detail for ring-joint gaskets as well as spiral-wound and jacketed gaskets. Throughout the time ring-joint gaskets were being developed and incorporated into standards, equipment manufacturers and designers continued to develop proprietary metal seal designs. These proprietary designs are continuing to be developed to satisfy the relentless need for equipment design improvements in order to extract and produce oil and gas resources under increasingly difficult environmental conditions.

Since 1960, Vanco has manufactured standard ring-joint gaskets, such as the R-Type, RX-Type and BX-Type, as well as complex proprietary designs utilized in subsea and surface equipment designed by various original equipment manufacturers.

Vanco’s products are manufactured at our location in Stafford, Texas.