Is this gasket missing something?

[Jeff Jagusch]

Having spent over 35 years in the gasket industry, Scott is spot on!
The bead material is NOT needed at the bolt hole as the highest stress on the gasket is right at the hole. Stress reduces between bolt holes and more rapidly as the flange deviates from the centerline between two bolts.
The purpose of the bead is to increase the stress on the gasket material so that it will seal properly, also there is some smaller effect of the bead sealing small machining imperfections.

Also, consider if you put a bead around the bolt hole, now you have defeated the purpose of adding a bead mid span as there is more material to compress at the bolt hole

Absolutely nothing to be concerned about

[masraum]

Originally Posted by masraum

I'm not a structural engineer or machinist.

My guess is that that portion is solid enough and far enough from the cavities that they just aren't worried about it leaking, so there's no need for the sealant stuff.

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

Applying what I was able to pickup from the stress analysts working on the birds I worked on, the red material doesn't really need to be in that area since the sphere of torque on that particular bolt probably intersects the end points of the red stuff. By not putting it there they may have saved not only time to put it there but also material costs as well. Now it may not seem like a lot of either would have been saved by not laying it down, but when you multiply that amount by say a million, that adds up. We all know how the bean counters of the world have made our lives all the richer for their efforts.

That's what I said! (well, it's what I was thinking, whether I explained it as well or not.)

Originally Posted by Jeff Jagusch

Having spent over 35 years in the gasket industry, Scott is spot on!
The bead material is NOT needed at the bolt hole as the highest stress on the gasket is right at the hole. Stress reduces between bolt holes and more rapidly as the flange deviates from the centerline between two bolts.
The purpose of the bead is to increase the stress on the gasket material so that it will seal properly, also there is some smaller effect of the bead sealing small machining imperfections.

Also, consider if you put a bead around the bolt hole, now you have defeated the purpose of adding a bead mid span as there is more material to compress at the bolt hole

Absolutely nothing to be concerned about

Cool

"and now you know, the rest of the story." - Paul Harvey