Seals & Sealing Arrangements

Mechanism: A simple contact seal. A dense felt strip, soaked in hot oil, is fitted into the housing groove and rests tightly against the rotating shaft to form a physical barrier.

Characteristics: Its wicking action absorbs oil from the reservoir to maintain a micro-lubrication layer.

Advantages: Highly cost-effective and efficient at blocking large particles. However, it causes minor shaft friction, cannot handle high speeds, and offers poor protection against liquid ingress or fine dust.

Mechanism: A flexible elastomeric radial lip seal (typically nitrile rubber, NBR), cut or split at one point along its circumference.

Characteristics: The split lets the seal be wrapped directly around the shaft during maintenance or replacement.

Advantages: Drastically reduced downtime, as machinery does not need to be dismantled to slide a new seal onto the shaft. It provides positive lip contact to trap grease, but wears over time from constant friction.

Mechanism: A non-contact arrangement of interlocking stationary and rotating rings that form a tight, winding, tortuous path.

Characteristics: It uses a tiny radial clearance gap. Contaminants lose momentum trying to navigate the complex, multi-directional channels, while grease packed in the path acts as a physical barrier.

Advantages: With zero physical contact, it generates no friction or heat, allowing virtually unlimited operating speeds and an extremely long operational life. It is less effective when the shaft is static or completely submerged.

Mechanism: An elastic rubber ring with a flexible, tapered axial sealing lip. It is stretched and interference-fitted onto the shaft, so it rotates with the shaft.

Characteristics: The lip presses lightly against a stationary counterface, such as the housing wall. As speed increases, the ring acts as a centrifugal flinger, slinging water droplets and dust away from the entry point.

Advantages: Simple to install, with low friction. At very high speeds (typically above 12 m/s), centrifugal force can lift the lip off the counterface, so a radial locator ring is needed to keep it secure.

Mechanism: A heavy-duty, multi-stage cartridge combination seal engineered for the harshest industrial conditions. It integrates a tight labyrinth seal, an internal V-ring and a grease-purging system in one robust housing.

Characteristics: The rotating ring flings away heavy debris, the internal V-ring blocks fine particles, and an integrated grease nipple lets fresh grease be pumped in regularly to push contaminants back out.

Advantages: Unmatched protection for high-investment machinery against highly abrasive materials such as taconite iron ore, sand and cement.