What are the causes of seal leakage?
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As the title suggests, seal leaks have been occurring frequently in the production water plant recently. What are the reasons behind these seal leaks? Does a leaking mechanical seal have to be replaced?
Mechanical seals are vulnerable components; what medium are you transporting? Temperature? Concentration? Does it contain particles? Rigid or flexible? How long has it been in use? Positive pressure or negative pressure operation?
This can be divided into internal and external factors: internal factors are design issues, while external factors are operational issues. It’s hard to say.
Material properties: Corrosivity, temperature changes, pressure fluctuations, hard particles； External factors: foundation settlement, external environment ； Human factors: Impact on the pump, lack of maintenance skills, pump flushing, improper pump operation* ； Essential factors of the pump: substandard product, product from a small workshop.
Material properties: Corrosivity, temperature changes, pressure fluctuations, hard particles in the material； The pump produces excessive noise; for example, the bearings may have lost their flexibility. There is a lack of skilled repair techniques, and it is essential to be careful during installation – handle the pump gently and avoid rough handling. Pay attention to the operating temperature of the mechanical seal, as well as the fluidity of the material. It is crucial not to let the pump run without any load. For pumps equipped with mechanical seals, the operating environment must not contain large amounts of hard dust; for example, in foundry shops, after equipment modifications, it is necessary to clean the area and rinse the mechanical seals thoroughly to prevent weld slag or other metallic substances from sticking to them. Otherwise, once the pump starts running, the mechanical seal will be damaged. There are many other things that need to be taken into consideration.
First of all, if the mechanical seal is leaking, it definitely needs to be replaced. To analyze the cause of leakage in a mechanical seal, it is necessary to determine what type of mechanical seal it is. Only by understanding the operating characteristics of such seals can one figure out the specific reasons for the leakage.
Firstly, mechanical seals have a maximum leakage rate; in other words, they allow a certain amount of leakage. Depending on factors such as the model size, the highest leakage standard I’ve seen is 60 drops per second. Some mechanical seals experience leakage when the equipment is stopped but no leakage when it is in operation; this is a problem with one of the sealing surfaces, and such seals can still be used. If it’s not possible to analyze why the failure occurred, simply replacing parts will not work.
The mechanical seal is related to temperature, pressure, the alignment of the motor and pump, as well as the cleanliness of the liquid being transported
The mechanical seals produced by our company ensure complete zero leakage.