Why don’t my PTFE gaskets seal FRP, plastic and other light load flanges?
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Top Seals Articles
Find a reliable dry gas seal system for any application.
First of Six Parts
Follow the major developments in seal technology
This month's "Sealing Sense" was prepared by FSA member Larry Sheffield.
Proper safety precautions for selecting, installing and maintaining seal systems
The conformability, flexibility and wide range of material combinations and designs enable packing to seal many difficult, unconventional applications. These capabilities, coupled with other packing systems components, can provide effective sealing solutions that reduce the consumption of valuable water and energy resources.
As we learned last month, carbon/graphite fiber packings have proven to be effective solutions to many common sealing applications. This time, we have learned that flexible graphite packings appear to have become the packings of choice when sealing fugitive emissions, high heat media, and rotating equipment with limited cooling or flush available.
Due to heat-shrink technology, agitator seal functions failure free for more than a decade.
Maintaining equipment uptime in a mining operation is essential. For one of South American's largest sulfurated copper mining organizations, unreliability simply wasn't acceptable, so they turned to one seal manufacturer to develop a pump sealing system improvement program using the Six Sigma methodology.
Manufacturers of braided packings are often asked to simply supply "A PTFE packing." Though this may seem a straightforward request, it generates questions that must be answered to ensure the correct PTFE packing for the application. A clear understanding of the differences between the various forms of PTFE braided packing will enable a selection of reliable sealing for the pump or valve.
Latest Seals Articles
Why don’t my PTFE gaskets seal FRP, plastic and other light load flanges?
Find a reliable dry gas seal system for any application.
First of Six Parts
Follow the major developments in seal technology
This month's "Sealing Sense" was prepared by FSA member Larry Sheffield.
Proper safety precautions for selecting, installing and maintaining seal systems
Many factors must be considered when selecting a sealing system for the various types of slurry services. Most important are the properties of the slurry itself and how those properties may change in service and affect seal performance.
These recommendations do not take into account any special problem conditions that the pump may be experiencing as a result of its relationship with the system. These must be evaluated and considered separately. However, it will be found that, on many of these occasions, one or more of the recommended upgrades are likely to form a part of the overall solution.
Galvanic corrosion is an electrochemical process that occurs between two dissimilar metals, or between a metal and a conductive non-metallic material, when both are exposed to an electrically conductive media.
The application of expansion joints to thermoplastic and FRP piping systems requires special attention to design features to ensure optimum long term reliability and safety.
The FSA is actively participating in the task groups on the fourth edition of the API-682/ISO 21049 and 3A Sanitary Standards for mechanical seals .We also provided input on sealing systems to the ASME EA-2-2009 Energy Assessment for Pumping Systems standard. The API & 3A standards provide the latest technology updates for formidable industry applications, while the ASME Standard addresses the critical issues of energy efficiency and sustainability.
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Columns and Blogs
In this multi-part series, we will investigate several aspects of centrifugal pump efficiency.
First of Five Parts
Since the original publication of this draft standard in the January 2008 issue of Pumps & Systems, I have received feedback, encouragement, numerous questions and criticism. The draft listed three basic levels of repair.
The McGraw-Hill scientific dictionary [5] states that a volute is "a spiral casing for a centrifugal pump... designed so that speed will be converted to pressure."
