Use of Mechanical Seal in Pumps

The entire world is progressing with increasingly strict environmental standards and harsher operating conditions. And this has made the pump sealing technology an active area of research and development.

Over the period, as industrial advancement brought new technologies, mechanical seals have evolved to keep up with the pump sealing technologies. The need and further advanced usages of a mechanical seal was evident as industry faced grave issues while handling high pressure, high temperature, corrosive and toxic fluids.

And with the conventional methods used in the earlier times were not effective as well as able to deal with these complex issues. Moreover, failure to effectively seal such fluids leads to major fatalities and numerous types of environmental damages.

Problems while working with the older technologies

Although the traditional gland packing are still used in many applications, however increasingly users are adopting mechanical seals to overcome the following mentioned drawbacks.

1. The friction of the shaft rotating wears away at the packing over time, which leads to increased leakage until the packing is being adjusted or re-packed.
2. The friction of the shaft also means that packing also needs to be flushed with the large volumes of water in order to keep it cool.
3. Packing needs to press against the shaft in order to reduce the leakage; this means that the pump needs more drive power to turn the shaft and leads to wasting energy which is not required ideally.
4. Because packing needs to contact the shaft it will eventually wear a groove into it, which can be costly to repair or replace.

Advantages while working with mechanical seals

1. Lower frictional drag than usual packing means better pump effectiveness
2. A mechanical seal will not wear out a shaft, or sleeve, as fast as packing rings
3. Near zero leakage is possible with mechanical seal; packing requires some leakage (usually visible) for proper lubrication
4. Properly applied mechanical seals require less periodic maintenance than packing
5. Specially designed mechanical seals can be applied to higher pressures and speeds than traditional packing.

Key Takeaways

For the above mentioned reasons mechanical seals are used in a pump. They can highly save on maintenance and an immense amount of time and money. And the biggest benefit of using mechanical seals is the drastic reduction in leakage which has its own environmental concerns to be addressed.

To know more about Mechanical Seal call on +91-(2739) 271592 or email at info@leakpack.com.

Read More Articles:

What Is A Mechanical Seal In Centrifugal Pump?

How Does A Mechanical Seal Function In A Pump?

Top Five Mechanical Seal Manufacturers in Pune