ST-591 FIBROTITE OAKUM

ST-591 Product profile summary
ST-591 FIBROTITE is a special dry oakum in rope form which can be used to make Reinforced Foam Seals in leaking concrete joints and cracks. ST-591 FIBROTITE is made from selected jute which is carefully carded to remove almost all hard fibers and undesired contaminants. FIBROTITE rope has seven or eight strands with about 1.5 twists per foot. The loose rope is approximately two inches in diameter and weighs about 0.4 pounds per foot.

ST-591 FIBROTITE packs solidly into joints and cavities, and its double-yarn configuration is easily unwound where thinner strips are needed. Only dry unoiled jute is appropriate for use with Strata Tech's hydrophilic injection resins in concrete joint sealing applications. ST-591 FIBROTITE contains less than 8% oil by weight.

ST-591 FIBROTITE is wound into a 50 pound coil and packaged in a cardboard box. The coil can be easily pulled out of the carton by working from the center of the coil. Each 50 pound coil can be unwound into separate smaller strips to make approximately 1000 lineal feet of 0.5 inch diameter strands. Each strand is loosely twisted to allow quick absorption of its companion sealant and to provide easy packing properties in narrow joints and small cavities.

ST-591 FIBROTITE conforms to Federal Specification H.H.-P-117, Section IV, Part 5, of the Federal Standard Stock Catalog, approved by the Director of Procurement, November, 1940 for use by all Departments of the Federal Government. An excerpt of the specification is attached. Copies of the complete specification may be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, DC.

The Activated Oakum Process was accidentally discovered by a sewer repair crew. The men were trying without much success to seal the annular space around a polyethylene slip line pipe that had been installed within an older sewer pipe. In a last frustrated attempt to stop groundwater leakage, the crew soaked jute strips in a foaming urethane grout compound and packed them into the space between the inner and outer pipes. To their delight, the seal worked. In fact, the seal was so effective and so easy to install that word of their success spread quickly. Others quickly tried the idea in all sorts of subgrade leak situations including large concrete pipe joints, expansion joints, manhole corbel voids, and abandoned pipe junctions. The effective seal made by the Reinforced Foam was dense enough to handle high head pressures yet flexible enough to allow structural movement. Users also found the RF Seals successfully resisted freeze- thaw attack, wet-dry cycles, vibration, traffic impact, repeated compression-relaxation, and groundwater extrusion.