Bodok seal


The Bodok seal is a specialised washer that ensures a gas-tight seal between the cylinder yoke or regulator of an anaesthetic machine or any medical device requiring a gas supply, and a gas cylinder. It was introduced along with the pin index safety system during the 1950s.
Attachment and detachment of a gas cylinder leads to constant wear and tear, due in part to mechanical distress and to gaseous compression and expansion. Adiabatic effects in rapidly expanding compressed gases can generate very low temperatures, necessitating a sufficiently durable and cold-resistant material such as neoprene. Prior to the introduction of the Bodok seal, the traditional fibre washer would frequently splay and cause leakage or adhere to the regulator, thus requiring the use of pliers and considerable force to remove it.
The Bodok seal consists of a neoprene washer with a peripheral metal reinforcing ring to prevent splaying. The seal is incombustible and resistant to the high pressures imposed upon it by cylinder gases, approximately in a full cylinder.
Care must be taken when replacing gas cylinders that the Bodok seal does not stick to the cylinder valve face, and is thus 'lost' when the new cylinder is fitted, preventing a gas tight seal.
Bodok seals are also used in emergency oxygen kits used in first aid for underwater diving, but diving regulators used for scuba cylinders generally use a conventional o-ring seal with either a DIN 477 or CGA 850 yoke connector.