Steam cooling for machine seals
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Some of the mechanical seals in the pumps in my workshop are cooled by steam; the temperature of the medium being transported is around 300 degrees. These mechanical seals use external seal oil for cooling (the temperature of this seal oil is around 90 degrees). The role of steam should be to provide cooling, and this process involves heat absorption. What I would like to know is why, in actual production, water flows out of the cooling jacket of the mechanical seals rather than steam
Steam cooling is quite troublesome; in most workshops, water cooling is sufficient. The purpose of cooling is to keep the mechanical seal cool when it is operating at high speeds, thereby protecting silicon carbide from wear.
It is not advisable to use steam cooling for pump machinery. Firstly, it increases energy consumption and thus material usage; secondly, it makes maintenance more complicated, raising repair costs； It seems that our company doesn’t yet have machine pumps cooled by steam; generally, circulating water is used for cooling.
I think that when the mechanical seal is functioning properly, the temperature around the cooling jacket is mainly that of the seal oil, and combined with heat transfer to the outside environment, this causes the steam to condense. I also have questions regarding the operating conditions and effects of using steam back-cooling: what temperature is appropriate for the steam, and what are the main advantages of this method compared to cooling water? Please offer some guidance from those with experience. I think one advantage of steam is that it can carry the medium away promptly in case of intermittent or minor leaks.
We don’t have pumps with mechanical seal cooling yet
I’ve never seen it or heard of it; steam cooling must be quite troublesome
Our company uses steam-cooled pumps, which are several horizontal multi-stage pumps. Steam is supplied directly to the static ring seat of the pumps. When they were first installed, we wondered why steam was used for cooling; later we realized that the temperature of the material was over 200 degrees. It made sense to use steam (low-pressure steam at around 120 degrees) for cooling, as the temperature of the steam is much lower than that of the material. It’s similar to using water at 20 degrees to cool material at 40 degrees. We haven’t figured out why cooling water isn’t used – perhaps it’s because if the temperature difference between the cooling water and the material is too large, it could shorten the lifespan of the mechanical seal. The specific reason still needs to be answered by an expert
Could someone explain in detail the method of cooling with steam? We use circulating water, and the chamber tends to get clogged (due to dirty water). Would it be sufficient to replace the cooling water with steam directly?
I’ve heard of it for the first time, but generally the steam temperature isn’t low – it’s at least 200°C – so I doubt it will have any cooling effect.
It seems that not many people are familiar with the method of steam cooling for mechanical seals. Our coking workshop has been using steam cooling since 2004, and to date, I think the results have been quite good. The mechanical seal does not leak much, and it will not get clogged due to dirty cooling water. But what I want to know now is whether the current steam cooling effect is due to the oil seal in place
We’ve never seen steam cooling used in our factory; we’re not sure what the effect of steam cooling is