APPLICATION
We were asked by one of our customers, a major food manufacturer, to look at an issue they were having with rotary seals on a specialist extrusion system.
THE PROBLEM
The existing seals were a special rotary seal manufactured from filled PTFE, and energised with a nitrile O Ring. The customer was finding that these seals in operation, were quickly wearing and breaking down, with the potential with broken pieces of seal getting into the product.
THE SOLUTION
The solution proposed by Evolution Seals was to replace the seals with a new custom designed machined seal, with a special rotary profile and sealing material used was blue metal detectable PTFE, energised with a blue metal detectable Silicone O Ring, providing full visibility and detectability in the event that the seal did break down.
OUTCOME
A sample batch of seals were manufactured and provided to the customer for testing and evaluation purposes. Following thorough testing and trials, it was found that the new replacement seal was performing better than the original seal, providing a much longer sealing life without breaking down.
Very happy with the performance of the new seal, the customer subsequently implemented the new replacement detectable seal and ordered full requirement batches for production.
ACHIEVEMENT
By changing to the new replacement seals, the customer achieved a cost saving of 50 – 60%, and lifespan of the seals was in the region of 3x that of the original seal.
