From mechanical components to rubber materials, there are many different seal products available to suit many different mechanical needs. If you’re new to the industrial world, or if you’d just like to brush up on some of the various types and functions of mechanical seals, then you’ve come to the right place. This guide is designed to help you learn more about specialty seals and the variety of rubber and plastic solutions available for different mechanical applications.
At Real Seal, our industry experts are proud of our manufacturing efforts, and we want to help you learn more about the different seals we create. Take a look at the information below to help you understand what mechanical seals are, what they’re used for, and how you can buy them for your own industrial project.
What is a Mechanical Seal?
A mechanical seal can be defined as any product that is engineered to contain fluid in a specific area, where a shaft will rotate around housing or vice versa. A seal is responsible for keeping fluid in place, creating a pressurized pocket that will prevent the liquid from spilling out if a shaft or housing needs to rotate around it.
Mechanical Seal Design
Before mechanical seals were intuited, more traditional forms of seals would involve flat rope being packed around the shaft to keep fluids in place. However, over time the friction of the shaft can wear and tear over time, causing the fluid to leak more and more. There are too many pressure and cooling requirements for this more traditional form of sealing, which is also known as gland packing, then is worth it. That’s why mechanical seals were developed, to help combat this issue.
Basic mechanical seals have three sealing points:
● The Primary Seal – This is the part of the seal that remains mounted at all times, with a spring-loaded system that will detect any movements in the shaft due to misalignment.
● The Rotating Face – This sealing point is attached to the shaft using an O ring. It is sometimes static since it rotates with the shaft, but never on its own.
● The Stationary Face – This sealing point uses the static seal to lift itself to the pump housing, which can be sealed with a gasket or an O ring for stability.
Fluidity
Most mechanical seals use a fluid film to keep them properly lubricated. Usually the fluid is pumped, but it can come from an outside source as well. It is sometimes difficult to figure out how to allow lubricant to flow while also preventing the seal from leaking too much fluid. There is also the challenge of not allowing any contaminants to enter the sealed area.
The way this challenge is met is that the seals contain a gap between the two faces that will allow clean lubricant to enter through. This gap is small enough to prevent contaminants from getting in, making it the perfect solution to maintain the proper amount of fluidity with the seals.
Preventing Leakage
The most major purpose of mechanical and specialty seals is to prevent too much leakage from getting through. Visible seal leakage indicates a problem in the sealing system altogether.
Most mechanical seals come with a super-thin layer of fluid film, which keeps the seal faces in place as well as apart from one another. This tiny gap does cause some leaks, meaning that leaks are inevitable. However, the leakage is so consistently low, nearly microscopic, that it is never a problem at all. This is a far better solution than the gland packing days of yore.
Order Specialty Seals for Your Industrial Project ASAP
At Real Seal, we have a variety of mechanical and specialty seals at your disposal. We have been in the industry for over four decades, making us industry experts in all things seal. For more information, or to get in touch with one of our reliable professionals, you can contact us online or give us a call at (800) 542-6162 at your earliest convenience. We look forward to speaking with you!
