Functions of Silicone and Mastic for Refrigeration (Coolrooms and Freezers)
11 April 2017Mastic is a semi-solid paste, a sealant that’s commonly employed in many industrial and commercial settings. Importantly, this sealant can be formulated as a “non-skinning” product, but more on this property later. Meanwhile, a comparable silicone sealant exhibits similar properties. It’s flexible, highly temperature capable, and designed to quickly adhere surfaces.
Neutral Cure Silicone Sealants
The liquid rubber is pressed out of a tube by a caulking gun. Chemically neutral by design, the malleable compound lacks a plastic backbone. Instead, the inert silicon creates an elasticized barrier, an insulating glue that adheres while flexing. That’s an important quality for a sealed chamber that will contract invisibly as the arctic climate takes hold. Again, because of the silicon core, the stretchy seal adheres with non-toxic strength.
Mastic as a Refrigeration Sealant
This is a pasty material, like the sealants used to support bathroom tiles. An added non-skinning property then approximates the permanently stretchy feature found in silicone, which means Mastic also creates a flexing coolroom seal, one that’s as elastic as it is airtight. Seemingly, one more barrier between the two terms has fallen. In point of fact, many industry types use silicone and mastic as interchangeable terms. Granted, silicone was once considered a sealant while Mastic was regarded a builder’s friend, a sealant for the bathroom, but formula advances have washed away these differences until their two product lines share many common features.
The Versatile Mortar in a Refrigerated Chamber
At the end of the day, both of these products are sourced from different chemical domains, but they accommodate the same functions. The original Mastic came from a tree, but it’s now made synthetically. Silicone sealants came from rubber trees, but they’re also formulated synthetically now, yet folk continue to swap their brand names and chemical terms. Regardless of the name, picture older Mastic as the soft jointing agent used by builders. Conversely, silicone was the lubricating liquid that sealed small flanges and oiled moving parts. In this form, though, the paste and gel, they both exist eternally as a semi-cured sealant, a product that acts as a temperature, dust, and moisture barrier.
Used in wall joints, glass and plastic window seals, and as gap fillers, both silicone and Mastic are capable of creating a flexible barrier, one that won’t crack or fracture when the frosty and perhaps moist refrigerated enclosure contracts then expands in response to the temperature variances that are part-and-parcel of a coolroom or freezer’s operational existence.
Mark Connelly
C&M Coolroom Services
E-mail: markconnelly@cmcoolrooms.com.au
Mobile: 0412 536 315
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