Garlock Asbestos Rope Packing

Product Description

Garlock Sealing Technologies was one of the most prominent manufacturers of industrial sealing products in the United States throughout the twentieth century. Among its extensive product lines, Garlock produced asbestos rope packing — a braided or twisted cordage product designed to create fluid-tight seals in pumps, valves, compressors, and other rotating or reciprocating mechanical equipment. This type of packing was installed into stuffing boxes, which are cavities built into pumps and valve stems specifically to receive packing material that prevents process fluids from leaking along a rotating shaft or moving stem.

Garlock’s rope packing products were manufactured and sold for decades across heavy industrial sectors, including chemical processing, petroleum refining, pulp and paper mills, power generation facilities, shipyards, and general manufacturing plants. The product was considered a standard industrial consumable — widely stocked in maintenance storerooms and routinely replaced as part of scheduled equipment servicing. Its widespread availability and Garlock’s dominant market position meant that the product appeared in virtually every category of industrial facility that operated rotating or reciprocating mechanical equipment during the mid-to-late twentieth century.

Rope packing of this type was sold in spools or cut lengths and was available in various grades and fiber constructions depending on the service conditions required — temperature, pressure, chemical exposure, and shaft speed all influenced which specific product a facility or maintenance contractor would specify.

Asbestos Content

Garlock incorporated chrysotile asbestos — and in some formulations, amphibole asbestos fibers — into its rope packing products because asbestos offered a combination of properties that no other affordable material could match at the time. Asbestos fibers are heat-resistant, chemically stable across a wide range of corrosive environments, dimensionally stable under compression, and capable of being braided or woven into flexible cordage. These characteristics made asbestos-containing rope packing effective for sealing high-temperature steam lines, corrosive chemical service, and other demanding applications where organic fiber packings would fail rapidly.

Garlock’s manufacturing process involved blending, carding, and spinning asbestos fibers — sometimes in combination with other materials such as graphite, oil, or metallic wire reinforcement — into a final braided or twisted product. The resulting rope packing could contain a substantial proportion of asbestos fiber by weight. Trust fund documentation and litigation records confirm that asbestos was an intentional and functional component of Garlock rope packing, not an incidental contaminant.

Asbestos use in Garlock packing products continued for many years before regulatory pressure, evolving liability exposure, and the eventual availability of synthetic fiber alternatives led the company to transition away from asbestos-containing formulations. Products manufactured and installed during the peak decades of asbestos use remain in place in some older industrial facilities and continue to represent a source of potential exposure during maintenance and replacement work.

How Workers Were Exposed

Workers in a broad range of industrial trades and maintenance roles encountered Garlock asbestos rope packing throughout its service life, from initial installation through routine maintenance and eventual removal. The exposure pathways were consistent across industries and job functions.

Installation and cutting. New packing was cut to length from spools or pre-cut coils using knives or other cutting tools. This cutting action released asbestos fibers into the air immediately surrounding the worker performing the task. The packing was then inserted into stuffing boxes and compressed with gland nuts or follower rings, a process that could cause additional fiber release through handling and compression of the material.

Repacking and maintenance. Industrial pumps and valves require periodic repacking as the existing packing material wears, hardens, or loses its sealing effectiveness. Workers removing old Garlock rope packing from stuffing boxes used picks, hooks, and other tools to dig the compressed packing material out of the cavity. This removal process disturbed aged, dried, and fragmented asbestos-containing material, often generating significant airborne fiber concentrations in confined or poorly ventilated spaces such as pump rooms, valve pits, and mechanical equipment rooms.

Incidental bystander exposure. Workers performing other trades in proximity to packing installation or removal — pipefitters, operators, laborers, helpers — were exposed to asbestos fibers released into shared work areas without necessarily handling the product themselves.

Specific trades documented as exposed include industrial maintenance mechanics, millwrights, pipefitters, stationary engineers, boilermakers, pump technicians, refinery workers, chemical plant operators, paper mill workers, and shipyard workers. Because rope packing was a maintenance consumable replaced on a regular schedule, many workers performed repacking operations repeatedly over the course of their careers, resulting in cumulative exposure across many years of employment.

OSHA’s current permissible exposure limit for asbestos is 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter as an eight-hour time-weighted average. Historical industrial hygiene studies documented that packing removal operations could generate airborne fiber concentrations well in excess of this standard in enclosed spaces without engineering controls or respiratory protection.

Documented Product Identification

The following details are drawn from public asbestos litigation records, manufacturer catalog pages, technical manuals, and corporate history materials. Each item reflects the product as documented in those sources.

Documented asbestos-use period: 1968

Corporate context: Garlock Inc. was a manufacturer of packing and gasket materials. The 1968 comparison chart indicates Garlock was an established industrial sealing products company producing equivalents to competitors including Johns-Manville, Raybestos-Manhattan, and John Crane.

Brand identification: LATTICE BRAID, CHEVRON, GARFITE product line names

Documented asbestos components: packing, gaskets, valve stem packing, compressed sheet.

Industries served: industrial manufacturing, chemical processing, petroleum refining, power generation, marine, food processing.

Naval / marine service: This manufacturer’s equipment is documented in connection with U.S. Navy and commercial-marine service.

Documented product lines:

  • LATTICE BRAID Asbestos Packing (1968). Braided asbestos packing available in multiple formulations including soft lubrication, controlled lubrication, heavy lubrication, gasoline resistant, and acid resistant versions. — asbestos components: packing.
  • High Pressure Asbestos Packing (1968). Asbestos packing with rubber back or rubber core for high pressure applications, available in ring, coil, and spiral configurations. — asbestos components: packing.
  • Square Plaited Asbestos Packing (1968). Square plaited asbestos packing including wire inserted versions, moly lubricated versions, and blue asbestos variants. — asbestos components: packing.
  • Braided Asbestos Packing (1968). Braided asbestos packing for hot oil service and general applications in square configurations. — asbestos components: packing.
  • Round Braid Asbestos Packing (1968). Round braid asbestos packing for valve stem applications and general service. — asbestos components: packing.
  • Twisted Asbestos Valve Stem Packing (1968). Twisted asbestos packing specifically designed for valve stem applications. — asbestos components: packing.
  • Compressed Asbestos Sheet Gasket Material (1968). Compressed asbestos gasket materials available in SBR, Neoprene, and Buna N binder formulations, including Navy Grade specifications. — asbestos components: gaskets.
  • Compressed Blue Asbestos (1968). Compressed blue asbestos gasket material for specialized sealing applications. — asbestos components: gaskets.

Garlock manufactured extensive lines of asbestos-containing packing and gasket materials with documented Navy Grade specifications. The 1968 comparison chart cross-references Garlock style numbers to competitor products from Johns-Manville, Raybestos-Manhattan, John Crane, Chesterton, and others.