Also known as grease seals, rotary shaft seals, or fluid seals, oil seals play a pivotal role in mechanical equipment. They are often overlooked because they are a small part of the machine, but when these oil seals fail, the consequences can be huge, like seal leakages that are costly to fix.
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From assembly machines to car engines, oil seals prevent any harmful damage from occurring, which is why you must choose the right oil seal with the highest quality. There are many kinds of oil seals, all of which have several uses.
This article will guide you through the most common factors you should look for when buying oil seals to help you choose the right one for the machinery you’re working on.
Improper installation and poor-quality oil seals are some of the reasons that pieces of machinery get damaged. When choosing an oil seal, consider the following factors.
The temperature range of the seal elastomer should match the temperature range of where you’ll install the seal. For example, high-temperature and high-pressure environments need more durable rubber, like Viton. If the oil seal is exposed to extreme temperatures outside of the elastomer’s range, the sealing lip may harden, break, and crack.
The oil seal’s material matters, as it can determine how well it performs depending on its use. Sealing elements can come in leather, silicone, synthetic rubber, Viton, nitrile, and polyacrylate. Nitrile is good for general purposes, as it’s flexible and resistant against oils, hot water, and gasoline. However, it doesn’t do well in extremely high temperatures. Meanwhile, silicone oil seals lessen wear and tear by absorbing lubricants. They have a wide temperature range and high thermal resistance, too.
Understanding the compression requirements of your components is important. Most ordinary oil seals are designed for very low-pressure applications (about 8 psi or less). If the intended application has high pressure, you should consider choosing an oil seal ideal for high pressure or changing to a pressure-free structure.
The oil seal shouldn’t suffer from spiraling or abrasions. As such, you should consider the maximum allowable shaft speed, runout, type of oil seal material, type of fluid being sealed, and housing bore and shaft concentricity before buying an oil seal.
Close shaft and bore tolerances should be present if you want the best seal performance. It would be best to consider the shaft’s vibration, eccentricity, and end play.
You must align bore and shaft centers because misalignment can shorten the oil seal’s life cycle due to the excessive wear concentrated on only one side of the sealing lip.
It would be best if you kept runout to a minimum. When the center of rotation moves, it’s usually caused by a shaft whip or bearing wobble. When you add misalignment, then you’ll face a greater problem. Contrary to common practice, installing flexible couplings won’t correct misalignment, which is why you need the right oil seal to prevent all these issues from arising.
The quality of the oil seal affects its service life. The higher the quality, the longer the lifespan, reducing wear and tear and increasing your ROI through lower maintenance costs. While wear and tear issues are inevitable, you should mitigate them by using materials that last long. Here, the first step to ensuring quality oil seals is purchasing from a reputable oil seal supplier.
When shafts have a Rockwell (RC) hardness of 30 or more, you can expect the oil seal to have a longer seal life. For shafts exposed to more abrasive contamination, your oil seal should handle RC 60.
You can tell that you have effective sealing if the shaft surface finish is in excellent condition. Sealing performance is greatly influenced by the spiral lead and the direction of the finish tool marks.
You’ll get the best sealing results when the shafts are ground or polished with concentric (no spiral lead) finish marks. If the shaft can’t help but have spiral finish leads, they should lead toward the fluid when the shaft rotates.
Oil or lubricants play a significant role in improving the oil seal’s performance. You should choose a lubricant compatible with the seal lip elastomer material and the right viscosity for the application. Incompatible lubrication can result in the wearing out of the oil seal.
An example of a lubricant you can use is Permatex Anti-Seize Lubricant, a highly refined blend of graphite, aluminum, and copper lubricants.
Oil Seals By: Angelo Ting/MINERAL CIRCLES BEARINGS
In any mechanical manufacturing company, optimal performance and long service life are vital to your products’ success in the market. No matter how much we go deeper in considering the brand and in deciding which one would last longer than the other, it’s also significant to at least put into consideration the importance of maintenance and preventive measures.
If there is any component that is underappreciated within a mechanical assembly or a bearing assembly, it would be the oil seal. Due to its relatively inexpensive cost, the importance of oil seals is often being overlooked and neglected. However, being a game changer in a bearing assembly, one must know the benefits it contributes in keeping your machine in perfect shape.
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Often called a rotary shaft seal, oil seals purposely serve to close the gap between stationary and moving components. When properly installed, oil seal’s main job is to retain or separate fluids. Furthermore, it also helps in preventing lubricants from escaping the gauge as well as it prevents foreign contaminants from moving in through the clearance. Seals also serve to prevent intermixture of two fluid mediums such as oil and grease . An oil seal that fails and create seal leakage, enables abrasives and corrosive moisture apart from allowing sediments to enter your machine.
Bearing manufacturers stress the importance of selecting the right seal for your machine for each has its own distinct differences. The selection of the right seal is crucial for the maintenance and integrity of a given application due to some situations wherein not all are fit to work on some machines.
Failure to follow common application best practices potentially results in costly mistakes or worse, system or machine failure.
What are the benefits of Oil Seals ? Is it cost-effective?
Aside from keeping your machines in its best shape, oil seal has so much to offer than what’s mentioned above. Some of these are as follows:
Oil seals work like glue between two elements: a stationary and moving component. Their function is to remove the spaces between such elements to ensure both components resist non-lubricity. This is especially important in a precision bearing. Any non-lubricated contact from both the seal and other elements can lead to a catastrophic failure. This will result to seal damage and ultimately, extended maintenance downtime.
Oil Seals also serve as a prevention method ensuring that no foreign objects such as dirt and soil enter your equipment. Since seals are employed in a variety of applications (from industrial to automotive), an effective seal must maintain a high-impenetrable degree of exclusion when it comes to contaminants or foreign objects that would aggravate the performance of your machineries.
However, in some cases when you have been caught up in a situation such as seal failure while it’s under the process of filtering out contaminants, possible event such as excessive mechanical strain may be introduced resulting in mechanical failure.
In addition to the list of positive things it does to our mechanical applications are:
Applications of oil seals
Oil seals play a major role in mechanical assemblies. Their strength and flexibility allows them to be used in numerous industries (any automotive or industrial application that has a rotating and moving part assembly) such as gearboxes, electric motors, industrial pumps, fans, and customized equipment.
In particular, oil seals are utilized in mechanical environments that must function under extreme pressure. This concept often applies to temperatures in which oil seals must operate. With its high degree of flexibility and use in various industries, oil seals must be able to work optimally in temperate conditions of – 70°C and +260°C.
Oil seals must also work in extreme fluid environments in which the risk of foreign contaminant is great. While most oil seals appear in the traditional ‘o-ring’ shape, oil seals can be manufactured to the specifications of each application. This means there’s a sealing solution for any uniquely designed equipment.
According to your requirements, the types of oil seals you can select from include:
Choosing the right oil seal
Before an oil seal is installed, considerations must be made with regard to the type of application parameters that it must function within. Considering these variables and factors ensures the right one is installed. A sound replacement affords mechanical longevity and proper functionality.
When selecting the right oil seal for your application, nine factors must be taken into consideration. Top bearing companies, designers, and maintenance engineers have specified the nine factors as:
These nine factors will also determine the right materials that your oil seals should be made of as wrongful selection can result in failure, including excessive internal pressure on the seal itself, premature wear, lip hardening, cracks, and swelling.
Over time, this damage can incur massive costs.-particularly if such issues are not promptly addressed.
While there are a variety of oil seals to select from, it’s important to choose the right profile for the application. This not only guarantees optimum performance for the applications but it also ensures a safe working environment for years to come.