As the key components of sealing applications, rubber seals are subject to complicated environmental conditions during the service lifetime. In this study, the aging of three typical rubber materials, ethylene–propylene–diene monomer rubber, liquid silicone rubber, and fluorine rubber, was tested under different high- and low-temperature cycle aging environments. The experimental results confirm that the reciprocating temperature cycle causes a type of fatigue failure, which could result in an increase in the rubber compression set. In addition, a novel accelerated aging test method was proposed based on the dominant damage mechanism of rubber material caused by the temperature cycle treatments. Based on this method, the long-term aging test results of rubber samples under high- and low-temperature cycle conditions can be predicted. This method could significantly shorten the aging test time and reduce the test cost.

The long-term stability and durability of seals are critical for various instruments and types of equipment. For static sealing, an important sealing state, there are currently two representative sealing methods, namely, pre-compressing static sealing and adhesive static sealing. In this paper, the characteristics and shortcomings of these sealing methods are summarized. At present, some static sealing requirements are urgent and difficult. For example, the deterioration of the sealing performance is an important factor which limits the service life of proton exchange membrane fuel cells and redox flow batteries. Therefore, a new method of static sealing whose sealing materials are rubber elastomers is proposed, named alterable static sealing. Then, its sealing processes are proposed. Furthermore, the actual contact area ratio r is used as the standard for sealability. Based on the mathematical model of pre-compressing static sealing, the influence of interface bonding was considered, and the mathematical model of alterable static sealing was established. Moreover, the compensatory effect of alterable static sealing on the static sealing capacity of rubber elastomers was proved.