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ABSTRACT

Project title : STUDY AND DESIGN OF A MECHANICAL SEAL

Industry : ROLON SEALS Hyderabad.
Name and hall ticket no :
Shaheed Afridi Mohammed 16RT5A0310
Talha Mohsin 15RT1A03E0
This is a report submitted to the nawab shah alam khan
college of engineering and technology for the undergoing
industrial oriented mini project.
To overcome the disadvantages of gland packing and
to stop the leakage in the mechanical shaft of the pump
and agitators the mechanical seal was designed and
constructed. The study of a mechanical seal which includes
the history, design, construction, applications, advantages
and disadvantages, testing, production, assembly and
despatch of a mechanical seal (catridge seal) is observed
in the industry and a report is made during the
undergoing mini project.
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Introduction
Mechanical Seal :
The basics Mechanical seals are leakage control
devices, which are found on rotating equipment such as
pumps and mixers to prevent the leakage of liquids and
gases from escaping into the environment. Figure 1 shows
a typical centrifugal pump, which highlights its constituent
parts, including the mechanical seal.

A mechanical seal consists of 2 principle components. One

component is stationary and the other rotates against it to
achieve a seal (Figure 2). There are many types of
mechanical seal, ranging from simple single spring designs
to considerably more complex cartridge seal types. The
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design, arrangement and materials of construction are

essentially determined by the pressure, temperature,
speed of rotation and product being sealed.

Design
By way of example, a simple mechanical seal design has 7
components (Figure 3):
1. Stationary component; commonly referred to as the seat
.
2. Stationary component sealing member.
3. Rotating component.
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4. Rotating component sealing member.

5. Spring.
6. Gland plate.
7. Clamp ring.

A mechanical seal has 4 main sealing points (indicated by

orange circles as per Figure 3):
I. The seal between the rotating (3) and stationary
faces (1). This is known as the primary seal.
II. The seal between the stationary member (1) and
stuffing box face, i.e. Gasket (2).
III. The seal between the rotating member and shaft or
shaft sleeve (4). This is known as the secondary
seal and may be an o -ring as shown, a v -ring, a
wedge or any similar sealing ring .
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IV. The seal between the gland plate and stuffing box,
this is usually a gasket, or o -ring.

 Mechanical Seal Types

There are various types and arrangement of the

mechanical seals being used for the centrifugal pumps.
Some of the commonly used ones are described below:

1. Pusher Type of Mechanical Seals:

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The pusher type of mechanical seals move axially along

the rotating shaft or the sleeve to maintain the contact
with the faces of the seal. This feature of these seals helps
compensate for the wearing that may occur at the seal
face, and wobbling due to misalignment. The pusher types
of mechanical seals are used commonly, are less expensive
and are easily available in the market in wide range of
sizes and designs. The only disadvantage of these seals is
that they tend to hang up and sometimes there is fretting
of the shaft.

2) Unbalanced Type of Mechanical Seals:

The unbalanced types of mechanical seals are used under

drastic conditions where there are vibrations,
misalignment of the shaft, and the problem of the
cavitation of the fluid. These mechanical seals are
inexpensive, allow lesser leakage of the fluid and are
highly stable. However, these seals can operate only under
low pressure range and if the force of the

fluid exceeds certain limits the lubricating film between

the faces squeezes out and the seal fails.
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3) Conventional Mechanical Seals:

These are relatively simple mechanical seals that have to

be properly set and aligned on the shaft or the sleeve of
the pump.
4) Non-pusher Type of Mechanical Seals:
As the name suggests, the non-pusher or bellow type of
mechanical seals don’t have to be moved axially to maintain their
contact with the faces. These seals can work under low
temperature and high pressure applications. The bellows used in
these seals should be upgraded so that they can work under the
corrosive environments.

 5) Balanced Mechanical seals:

The balanced mechanical seals have the ability to sustain

higher pressures across the faces and they generate lesser
heat thus they are suitable for handling liquids that have
low lubricating capacity and hydrocarbons that have high
vapor pressure.
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 Mating Ring: Ring-shaped member, mounted either on

a sleeve or in a housing such that it does not move
axially relative to the sleeve or housing which
provides the mating seal face for the seal ring .
 Seal Ring : Any component which has the ring or
bellows behind it and move axially relative to the
shaft/sleeve or the seal chamber.
 Seal types :
There are three seal types ,as follows
1. Type A seal is a balanced, inside-
mounted , cartridge design , pusher seal
with multiple springs and in which the
flexible element rotates. Secondary
sealing elements are elastometric O-
rings.
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2. Type B seal is balanced, inside-mounted,

cartridge design, Non-pusher Seal in
which the flexible elements rotates .
Secondary sealing element are
elastometric O-rings .
3. Type C seal is balanced, inside-mounted,
cartridge design , non pusher seal in
which flexible element is stationary .
secondary sealing elements are flexible
graphite.

Type And Type B are for tempterature upto

176 degree centigrade. And type C seal are
for temperature upto 400 Degree Centigrade.
 Seal Arrangements :
There are 3 seal arrangements , as Follows
1. Arrangement 1 : Seal configuration having one
seal per cartridge assembly .
2. Arrangement 2 : Seal configuration having two
seal per cartridge assembly , with the space
between the seals at a pressure less than the
seal chamber pressure
3. Arrangement 3 : Seal configurations having
two seals per cartridge assembly , utilising and
externally supplied barrier fluid at a pressure
greater than the seal chamber pressure .
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 Seal Orientation :
Arrangement 2 and Arrangement 3 seals can be in
the following 3 orientations .
1. Face-to-Back : A dual seal in which one mating
ring is mounted between that two flexible
elements and one flexible elements is
mounted between the two mating seal rings .
2. Back-to-Back : A dual seal in which both of the
flexible elements are mounted between the
two mating seal rings .

3. Face-to-Face : A dual seal in which Both of the

mating seal rings are mounted between the
flexible elements.
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 Seal types as below :

1. Contacting wet seals (CW) : Seal designs
where the mating faces are not designed to
initially create aerodynamic or hydrodynamic
forces to sustain a specific separation gap .
2. Non-Contacting seals (NC) : Seal design
where the mating faces are design to initially
create aerodynamic and hydrodynamic
separting forces to sustain a specific
separation Gap.
3. Contaminant Seal (CS) : Seal design with one
flexible element seal ring and mating ring
mounted in the contaminant seal chamber .

Selection of the Mechanical Seal for the Centrifugal

Pumps :
There are various types and arrangements of the
mechanical seals available in the market. It is very
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important to use appropriate mechanical seal for the

required application. If the incorrect mechanical seal is
selected there are chances that the fluid would start
leaking from the pump and the very purpose of installing
the expensive mechanical seal will be destroyed. In
addition there would be loss of time, manpower, resources
and also some safety hazards.
When selecting the mechanical seal for any applications
consider the following factors:
1) Liquid or fluid to be pumped: The first and the
most important factor to consider while selecting the
mechanical seal for the centrifugal pump is the liquid
or the fluid to be pumped. If ordinary liquid like
water is to be pumped, then conventional mechanical
seal with ordinary materials can be selected. In fact in
many water pumps ordinary glands are used as the
sealants since any leakage of water to the external
atmosphere is not dangerous. But you can always see
the water dripping from the pumps using ordinary
glands.

2) If the pump has to handle corrosive liquids like acids,

it is very important to select corrosion resistant
materials for the mechanical seals. Some of these
materials can be stainless steel, bronze or hastelloy.
The mechanical seals also comprise of the mating
surfaces and these should also be made up of
corrosion and wear resistant materials like ceramic,
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silicon or tungsten carbide, carbon etc. For the

corrosive environments the materials for the
stationary parts of the mechanical seal can be Teflon,
Buna, EPR or Viton.
3) Choosing the correct materials for the hazardous
liquids is very important else there will all the
chances that the materials would fail and the liquid
would leak to the atmosphere. This can be very
dangerous to the people moving around the pumps
and also to the atmosphere.
4) Pressure of the liquid: The liquid enters the pump at
certain pressure and the pump has to increase its
pressure to certain level so that it reaches certain
height. The total pressure on the seal decides whether
one should opt for the balanced seal or the
unbalanced type of seal.
5) Temperature of the liquid: Some pumps handle
liquids at high temperatures and others handle the
liquids at low temperature. The materials and mating
surfaces used in mechanical seals should be able to
sustain the temperature of the fluid.
6) Nature of fluid: The liquids to be handled by the
pump may be having ordinary flow, but there can also
be chemical solutions that have high viscosity and
slow flow, there can be precipitates, there can be
abrasive liquids and so on. These types of fluids
usually cause more wear and tear of the parts of the
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mechanical seals and in such cases it is advisable to

use double seals.
7) Safety and Environmental concerns: The safety of
human being handling the pump is of prime
importance so are the permissible emission
standards. To be on the safer side it is always better
to used double seals that work as the better sealants
and are more reliable.

 Types of seals :

BELLOW SEALS :
Bellow Seals are used to close the inside of a pump
from the outside world to prevent leakage .Bellow
Mechanical seals provide a high degree of axial
flexibility to compensate for lack of concentricity of
the shaft or misalignment due to thrust movement of
the shaft.

Bellow seals are fabricated and designed as per the

international standards, and are widely appreciated
in the market for their quality and sturdy
construction.

Available Range :Metal Bellow Seals, Rubber Bellow

Seals, Teflon/PTFE Bellow Seals, welded metal bellow
seals ,Water Pump Seals
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Application :

 Bellow seal are used for high temperature

application such as refinery, petrochemical ,
chemical industries,Sugar Industry, Paper
Industry & Pul BELLOW SEALS

 Bellow Seals are used to close the inside of a

pump from the outside world to prevent
leakage.Bellow Mechanical seals provide a high
degree of axial flexibility to compensate for lack
of concentricity of the shaft or misalignment due
to thrust movement of the shaft.

 Bellow seals are fabricated and designed as per

the international standards, and are widely
appreciated in the market for their quality and
sturdy construction.

Metal bellow seal elastomer bellow seal

MULTI SPRING SEALS :

Multi Spring Mechanical Seals can be used in various
industries for different applications as per the
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requirement of the products such as single, back to back,

face to face or tandem arrangement .Multi-Spring seals
design has many springs put uniform force over the faces
hence increase its life. Most of components are
interchangeable, hence it proves economical and easy to
maintain.
Pusher Type Mechanical Seals are available in Un-
balance design for low pressure and Balance design for
high pressure applications .These Seals can be designed in
Double configuration for toxic, hazardous, costly & volatile
liquids. We can offer Double Mechanical Seals in Back to
Back as well as Tandem arrangement as per application.
Available range: Multi spring unbalanced seal, multi
spring balanced seal, reversed balanced seal, capsulated
spring seals, dry running mixer seals ,multi spring slurry
seal & single coil slurry seal

Application : Pusher seal are used in Clear Lubricating,

Non Corrosive & volatile liquids.
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multiple spring balanced seal multiple spring unbalanced

seal

SINGLE SPRING MECHANICAL

SEAL :
Single Spring Mechanical Seals are having single spring
design to take care contaminated liquids. Due to open coil
spring, it is used for non-clogging and self-cleaning
operations. Single Spring Seals are assured for long-term
usage and higher resistance to heat & pressure.

Single Spring Seals have very few parts and hence can be
easily assembled or dismantled .The seal arrangement
does not warrant any modification even in case of
conversion from gland packing .Single coil Seals can be
offered in Un-balance as well as Balance design to take
care variety of applications.

Available Range: Single Spring Balanced seals, Single

Spring Unbalanced seals, Single Coil spring seals, Conical
spring seals and Wave spring seals

Application : Single Spring seals are used for Viscous,

Abrasive, Crystallizing, Solidifying & Non-Corrosive Slurry.
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Single spring balanced seal single spring un-balanced seal

CARTRIDGE SEALS :
Cartridge Mechanical Seals are specially designed to
handle highly corrosive & abrasive media .Cartridge Seals
are balanced and designed in such a way to avoid liquid
contact with spring therefore find usage in almost all type
of media.

Cartridge Mechanical Seals are Pre-assembled and ready

to install on any type of liquids. Such Seals do not require
adjustment in fitting due to pre-assembly hence avoid
installation problem .Cartridge seals are an attempt to
over-come the fitting problems of conventional seals .The
cartridge seals unit can overcome several limitations of
the standard pump gland.

Available Range :The range is available in different

cartridge and semi cartridge version which include Single
Slurry Cartridge Seals ,double Slurry Cartridge Seals
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,Single Cartridge seals, Dual Cartridge Seal, High Pressure

Dual Cartridge Seal & Metal Bellow Cartridge Seal.

Application : Cartridge seals are used Pharmaceuticals,

Dyeing Industries, Paper & Pulp Industries and
Petrochemicals ,Slurry pumps.

Single cartridge seal double cartridge seal