The sealing of capital goods is often overlooked, although it is fundamental in their maintenance and, by extension, in the useful life of these products. capital goods.
It sometimes happens that, when designing a machine, the engineering behind it focuses on aspects such as performance, reliability, spare parts, etc., and not enough importance is usually given to the sealing aspect of the equipment under development.
The various sealing elements are installed inside the capital goods, which is why, as they are not so exposed to view, they go even more unnoticed.
But we must not forget that without the right components to ensure optimum sealing of the process fluid, the equipment will not be able to perform the function for which it was designed.
If you want to know what industrial capital equipment is, what sealing components it uses and how Epidor Seals and Rubber can help you, read on.
Index
What are capital goods?
We can define capital goods as physical assets that a facility has available to manufacture intermediate or finished products that will be marketed at a later date.
In other words, a piece of equipment is any machinery with its possible peripherals that constitutes or forms part of the production facility itself..
For example, orange juice production involves conveyor belts, extractors, filtration equipment, pasteurizers, packaging machines... All this with a multitude of pumps, valves, tanks, pipes and motors...
Capital equipment is present in all types of industries and constitutes an important part of the company's capital.
Sealing of capital goods
We have already mentioned that sealing plays a crucial role in capital equipment, but what equipment has sealing elements?
We could determine that most capital equipment uses some sealing mechanism.
Here are some examples of sealing elements in capital goods:
- • Oil seals for shafts rotating relative to a fixed part (agitators, mixers, process pumps, etc.).
- • Low friction rotary joints (pistons, rods, etc...).
- • O-rings (motors, compressors, valves, etc.).
- • Membranes (pumps, measuring devices, hydraulic and pneumatic drives, circuit breakers, etc.).
- • Bearing shields (turbines, milling machines, machining centers, etc.).
- • Gaskets (pumps, mixers, tanks, etc.).
- • Labyrinth joints (aggregate crushers and classifiers, cement mixers, etc.).
- • Flat gaskets (reducers, piping, bag filters, etc.).
- • Profiles (tank gates, matrixes, etc.).
- • Inflatable seals (clean rooms, isothermal chambers, hermetic panels, etc.).
As you can see, we have mentioned some examples of systems that help solve sealing problems.
Types of sealing in industrial capital equipment
Sealing in capital goods can be divided into two main groups: static sealing y dynamic sealing.
Knowing in which group our equipment asset is located will allow us to find the right sealing solution more suitable.
If the contact surfaces of the equipment do not have relative movement between them, we would need a static sealing solution. If, on the other hand, there is movement between the surfaces, we will have to resort to a solution of dynamic sealing.
Each group requires different sealing solutions. Based on the examples of sealing discussed above, we can include them in the following categories:
- • Static sealingO-rings, flat gaskets, inflatable gaskets and profiles.
- • Dynamic sealingSeals, low friction rotary seals, membranes, bearing shields, packings, labyrinth seals, piston seals and rod seals.
As you can see, the dynamic sealing has a wider range of solutions. This is due to the added complexity of adding the motion variable.
Selection criteria for sealing solutions for capital equipment
When it comes to choosing the sealing solution for capital equipment, In addition, it is important to carefully analyze the application and the working conditions.
The initial criterion will be to determine which type of sealing is necessary; whether it is dynamic or static, i.e., whether there is relative movement between the joint and the surface it is sealing against.
If there is no such movement and it is a static sealing, we must take into consideration the temperature range and the type of fluid in contact with the sealing element.
In case a dynamic sealing solution is required, it is advisable to observe at which speed and to what pressure value operates our equipment asset, in addition to static sealing considerations.
If we start from the premise that the majority of the sealing of capital goods are dynamic in nature, the criteria for choosing the appropriate solution requires extensive knowledge of the subject.
We hope this article has been useful to you. If you still have any doubts, contact our team of engineers with expertise in sealing solutions who will be happy to help you.