What are Car Seals?

Car seals are a simple device used to lock or 'seal' a valve in the open or closed position to prevent unauthorized operation of the valve.

Valve operation can only take place by cutting the seal, thereby giving evidence of either tampering, or activity by an authorized worker.

Car Seals are available in a choice of colours to suit your operational needs.

Colour coding of seals and tags is recommended to identify the valve safe position, e.g green for open and red for closed.

Other seal colours can be designated to indicate the medium flowing through the valve.

Car seals are used as part of a car seal program to seal valves in the open and closed position. Used in conjunction with a car seal tag in red or green to indicate the status of the valve. Generally used on process critical valves to prevent inadvertent or accidental operation of the valve.

Car Seals options

Material..

• Aluminium body with anodized colouring. These car seals have a galvanised steel cable.
• Stainless steel which offers excellent resistance to corrosion in a marine environment. The car seal head is made from Zinc, while the cable is stainless steel.
• Plastic valve ties which can be used for car sealing valves. Similar to steel cable car seals, these have a unique identification serial number.

Cable Diameter..

• Standard car seals have 2.5mm diameter, and this perfectly adequate for the application. The breaking strain if over 500kg (1102lbs). The cable is a multi-strand galvanised steel.

Cable Length..

• What a customer wants (standard cable length is 1000 mm).

Car Seals Colors..

• Many.

Marking and Identification..

• Every car seal can get a unique serial number.

Function..

• There are two styles of car seal functionality. These are self-locking and breakaway key. As the name suggests, a self-locking seal becomes sealed (locked) as soon the cable enters the body. The cable can be pulled tight but cannot be released.
• The other style has a breakaway key to seal the device. When the cable enters the body, it can still be removed. To create a seal, the cable must be pulled tight, then the breakaway key is manually turned until it snaps off. The tip of the key jams into the cable locking it in place.

What does Car Seal Open, Car Seal Closed mean..

If your job is in anyway connected with pipeline processes, piping design or valve equipment supply, you may well have come across the terms Car Seal Open, Car Seal Closed, CSO, or CSC written on PID's (Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams).

Very simply, the terms describe to need to lock (seal) a valve to prevent operation either in the open or closed position. The device to achieve this is a Car Seal.

The term derives from a device used to seal the cargo on railway cars. Much like the seals you sometimes see on the back of container lorries. They provide evidence of any tampering with the contents of the car or container.

Reference(s) .. www.car-seal.com