Basics of fluid pump sealing

A mechanical seal is simply a method of containing fluid within

a vessel (typically pumps, mixers, etc.) where a rotating shaft
passes through a stationary housing or occasionally, where the
housing rotates around the shaft.
When sealing a centrifugal pump, the challenge is to allow a rotating shaft to
enter the ‘wet’ area of the pump, without allowing large volumes of
pressurized fluid to escape.

To address this challenge there needs to be a seal between the shaft and the
pump housing that can contain the pressure of the process being pumped and
withstand the friction caused by the shaft rotating.
Traditional Methods

Before examining how mechanical seals function it is important to understand

other methods of forming this seal. One such method still widely used
is Gland Packing.
Gland packing is a braided, rope like material that is packed around the shaft -
physically stuffing the gap between the shaft and the pump housing.

Gland packing is still commonly used in many applications, however

increasingly users are adopting mechanical seals for the following reasons:;

• The friction of the shaft rotating wears away at the packing over time,
which leads to increased leakage until the packing is adjusted or re-
packed.
• The friction of the shaft also means that packing also needs to be
flushed with large volumes of water in order to keep it cool.
• Packing needs to press against the shaft in order to reduce leakage –
this means that the pump needs more drive power to turn the shaft,
wasting energy.
• Because packing needs to contact the shaft it will eventually wear a
groove into it, which can be costly to repair or replace.

Mechanical seals are designed to overcome these drawbacks

Design
A basic mechanical seal contains three sealing points.

The stationary part of the seal is fitted to the pump housing with a static seal –
this may be sealed with an o-ring or gasket clamped between the stationary
part and the pump housing.
(Highlighted in red below, left the stationary part and right the rotary portion)

The rotary portion of the seal is sealed onto the shaft usually with an O ring.
This sealing point can also be regarded as static as this part of the seal
rotates with the shaft.
The mechanical seal itself is the interface between the static and rotary
portions of the seal.

One part of the seal, either to static or rotary portion, is always resiliently
mounted and spring loaded to accommodate any small shaft deflections, shaft
movement due to bearing tolerances and out-of-perpendicular alignment due
to manufacturing tolerances.

Sealing Points

While two of the

sealing points in a seal design are simple static seals, the seal between the
rotating and stationary members needs a little more consideration. This
primary seal is the basis of all seal design and is essential to its effectiveness.

The primary seal is essentially a spring-loaded vertical bearing - consisting of

two extremely flat faces, one fixed, one rotating, running against each
other. The seal faces are pushed together using a combination of hydraulic
force from the sealed fluid and spring force from the seal design. In this way a
seal is formed to prevent process leaking between the rotating (shaft) and
stationary areas of the pump.

The surfaces of the seal faces are super-lapped to a high degree of flatness;
typically, 2-3 Helium light-bands (0.00003” / 0.0008mm).

If the seal faces rotated against each other without some form of lubrication
they would wear and quickly fail due to face friction and heat generation. For
this reason, some form of lubrication is required between the rotary and
stationary seal face; this is known as the fluid film

The Fluid Film

In most mechanical seals the faces are kept lubricated by maintaining a thin
film of fluid between the seal faces. This film can either come from the
process fluid being pumped or from an external source.

The need for a fluid film between the faces presents a design challenge –
allowing sufficient lubricant to flow between the seal faces without the seal
leaking an unacceptable amount of process fluid, or allowing contaminants in
between the faces that could damage the seal itself.

This is achieved by maintaining a precise gap between the faces that is large
enough to allow in a small amounts of clean lubricating liquid but small
enough to prevent contaminants from entering the gap between the seal
faces.
The gap between the faces on a typical seal is as little as 1 micron – 75 times
narrower than a human hair. Because the gap is so tiny, particles that would
otherwise damage the seal faces are unable to enter, and the amount of liquid
that leaks through this space is so small that it appears as vapor – around ½ a
teaspoon a day on a typical application.
This micro-gap is maintained using springs and hydraulic force to push the
seal faces together, while the pressure of the liquid between the faces (the
fluid film) acts to push them apart.

Without the pressure pushing them apart the two seal faces would be in full
contact, this is known as dry running and would lead to rapid seal failure.
Without the process pressure (and the force of the springs) pushing the faces
together the seal faces would separate too far, and allow fluid to leak out.

Mechanical seal engineering focuses on increasing the longevity of the

primary seal faces by ensuring a high quality of lubricating fluid, and by
selecting appropriate seal face materials for the process being pumped.

Leakage
When we talk about leakage we are referring to visible leakage of the seal.
This is because as detailed above, a very thin fluid film holds the two seal
faces apart from each other. By maintaining a micro-gap a leak path is
created making it impossible for a mechanical seal to be totally leak free.
What we can say, however, is that unlike gland packing, the amount of
leakage on a mechanical seal should be so low as to be visually
undetectable.

A recent case study indicated - Upgrading from packing reduces water

usage and operating costs.

In Summary - Why Do We Use Mechanical Seals?

• No “visible” leak - seals do leak vapour as the fluid film on the faces
reaches the atmospheric side of the seal faces.
o This would approximate to 1/2 teaspoon a day at normal
operating pressures and temperatures, if it were captured and
condensed.
• Modern cartridge seal designs do not damage the pump shaft or
sleeve.
• Day to day maintenance is reduced as seals have inboard springs
which make them self-adjusting as the faces wear.
• Seals have lightly loaded faces which consume less power than gland
packing.
• Bearing contamination is reduced in normal operation as the lubricant
does not become affected by seal leakage and wash out.
• Plant equipment also suffers less from corrosion if the product is
contained in the pump.
• Vacuum can also be sealed with this technology, a problem for packing
as air was drawn into the pump.
• Less wasted product will save money, even water is an expensive
commodity and less clean up of the area will be needed.