ElringKlinger cylinder-head gaskets. Over 100 years of know-how.
The company’s story began in 1879, when it started trading in gaskets and other technical products. Today, ElringKlinger is the leading supplier of cylinder-head gaskets.
Most of the world’s major automobile manufacturers put their trust in our exceptional quality and reliability. Cylinder-head gaskets play a key role in the ongoing refinement of engine technology, particularly for high-performance diesel engines and gasoline engines with direct fuel injection. Every year we produce around 30,000,000 cylinder-head gaskets worldwide. Our MetaloflexTM brand has made us the world’s largest manufacturer of metal layer cylinder-head gaskets. ElringKlinger offers the perfect sealing solution for every engine concept and the support of a highly efficient engineering service that accelerates the development process from original idea to production readiness.
Efficient. Reliable. Cost-effective. Custom-made.
Cylinder-head gaskets from ElringKlinger reliably prevent leakage of fuel gas, coolant and oil. Acting as a load transmission element between crankcase and cylinder head, they also have a considerable influence on the distribution of forces within the entire bracing system and the resulting elastic component deformations.
There is no standard solution for modern engines. The increasing demands call for an exact match between cylinder-head gasket and engine.
Cylinder-head gaskets produced by ElringKlinger are sophisticated components that are always customized to requirements. The technical superiority of our products is especially apparent in diesel engines and high-performance gasoline engines with direct fuel injection and is reflected in the following key features:
- Metal technology
- Flexible seal with beads for macro sealing
- Elastomer coating for micro sealing
- High thermal stability
- Compensation of high dynamic sealing gap movement
- Variable installed thicknesses, dead space minimization
Beads and functional layers
Half beads
Half beads generate two-line compression. They seal along the coolant and engine oil passages, around the bolt holes and the circumference of the outer sealing contour.
Full beads
Full beads generate three-line compression around the circumference of the combustion chamber. Thanks to this elastic sealing element, very high ignition pressures can be contained even in the case of considerable dynamic sealing gap oscillations.
Functional layers
These elastomer-coated spring steel layers feature elastic beads.
Center layer
The main function of the carrier (i.e., center) layer is to adapt the thickness of the seal to the installation conditions dictated by engine design.
The stopper is the key to a great seal
The engine components are elastically pre-stressed by a stopper on the circumference of the combustion chamber. This reduces the sealing gap oscillations caused by the force of the gas. Coined (i.e., embossed) stoppers are now the latest generation of stopper to succeed folded and laser-welded stoppers. A distinction is made between the stopper geometries in spring steel: functional layers use segmented, serpentine (i.e., wave-type) and dimpled designs and the carrier plate uses a honeycomb pattern.
Each stopper variant has different characteristics in respect of strength or geometric flexibility.
Cylinder-head gaskets with extensive design flexibility
Thanks to the option of combining several types of stopper,
ElringKlinger offers the best sealing system for any engine type.
Our stopper technologies
Folded stopper layers
As a pioneer in this technology, ElringKlinger has constantly set new benchmarks and continues to push the boundaries of what is feasible. With innovative sealing and production technologies we are able to offer even more cost-efficient solutions with greater functional potential. The development of the new type of coined stoppers represents one such milestone. Initially, MetaloflexTM cylinder-head gaskets were equipped with folded stopper layers. Then in the mid-1990s, ElringKlinger successfully introduced and mass-produced laser-welded stoppers.
Cylinder-head gaskets with coined stoppers represent the next stage in the development of this technology.
Coined stoppers
The manufacturing process for coined (i.e., embossed) stoppers allows for almost any geometric profile in respect of stopper width or thickness. Not being restricted to the area of the classic stopper surface, design engineers now have the option of integrating additional supports almost anywhere on the gasket.
To compensate for engine fabrication tolerances, different installation thicknesses are generally used in diesel engines; this is achieved by using variable carrier plate thicknesses. The advantage of this method is that gasket performance is not affected by the different layer thicknesses. The stopper embossing in the carrier plate is a honeycomb shape. The rigidity of these stoppers is comparable to that of welded stoppers. The embossing process developed by ElringKlinger therefore allows both flat and topographical stoppers to be produced in high-precision quality.
The serpentine stopper makes ideal use of the area for the stopper dictated by engine geometry. A wave-shaped “microbead” creates a thickening that can replace the previously used laser-welded stoppers while offering almost identical rigidity. The reason for this is that the numerous windings resulting from the wave geometry increase the rigidity of the stopper, preventing it from settling during engine operation and becoming too elastic; if the stopper were to become too elastic, it would increase sealing gap oscillations under ignition pressure and therefore adversely affect the durability of the system.
The segmented stopper is used predominantly in metal layer gaskets with higher carrier plate thickness and topographical stopper design. Due to the segmentation of the stopper, the high-strength spring steels used for the functional layers can be also be beaded around the circumference of the combustion chamber.
The required effective stopper dimension is achieved by embossing the carrier. As well as the necessary stopper thickness this also allows for a topographical stopper with almost any thickness profile variation. The special advantage of this concept is the high rigidity of the design, particularly in very narrow stoppers. This means that even in diesel engines, strong, minimum stopper widths of 1 mm in part are feasible.