Silicone Bungs

Do you like beer? Of course, you do – who does not? There aren’t a lot of things as refreshing as a pint of cold beer on a hot summer day, right? Now, would you believe us if we told you that some beers could not have been made if it weren’t for rubber stoppers? That’s right, rubber stoppers, or in this particular case, silicone bungs, are essential for the process of fermentation during the manufacturing process of beer. Silicone bungs offer a tight seal while the beer ferments inside of a flask, keeping the oxygen and potential airborne contaminants out of it, while at the same time, allowing the built-up CO2 to leave the flask. So, the next time you crack open a cold one, keep that in mind.

However, beermakers are not the only ones that use silicone bungs. These silicone stoppers are also present in other industries as well. For instance, they are immensely popular in the chemical industry, and there is pretty much no laboratory or chemical facility in the world that can operate without silicone bungs. Not only do they offer a brilliant airtight seal, keeping the contents inside of the flask, bottle, Erlenmeyer, or vial completely intact, but due to silicone’s low inert nature, you can safely use any of these containers with the silicone bungs in pretty much any environment you choose.

Silicone is naturally resistant to a lot of things. It can withstand both very high and very low temperatures, in the range of 270 to negative 70 degrees Celsius. But, in addition to excellent thermal stability, silicone bungs also offer remarkably low thermal conductivity, meaning it will be very hard for them to get hot or cold. Potentially even more important than that is the low chemical reactivity possessed by these bungs. In practice, that means that the bung won’t interact with the contents inside of the container it is sealing.