Seals

DEFINITION AND TYPES OF SEALS

A seal is a device that joins two elements together in order to prevent them coming apart or to prevent anything passing between them.

They can be categorized as following:

Shaft seals
Piston seals
Flat seals
Circlets
Rod seals
O-rings
Mechanical face seals
Static metallic seals
Self adhesive foils

SEALS MATERIAL AWARENESS
Compressed asbestos fiber sheet material has been the choice for soft gasket materials. The material was used to seal almost all common applications, and usually gave reasonable performance.

Recently, with the tendency away from the use of asbestos fibres, a new generation of materials have been developed by the sealing industry, with asbestos-free substitutes. Many of the new materials provide improved levels of sealing performances, but they require more care in general and although they can outperform their asbestos equivalent, they are less forgiving. As a result, users must be more careful when choosing the right material for the job and assembling the seal.

APPLICABILITY AND ADVANTAGES

In applications where different kinds of acids, chemicals or corrosive liquids are involved, it is necessary to be extremely careful to the kind of pumps used. A mechanical seal pump is the perfect solution for application when it comes to involving solids in the liquid, because the design allows to pump dirty fluids. Mechanical seals are used not only in pumps, but also in other equipments like mixers, agitators, compressors etc. With proper design and appropriate material selection, seals can have a long life, which makes them widely applicable.