Why do good Mechanical Seals fail...

We know that a mechanical seal is supposed to run until the carbon wears out, but our experience shows us this never happens with the original equipment seal that came installed in the pump. We buy an expensive new mechanical seal and that one doesn't wear out either. What is wrong? Was the new seal a waste of money?

Getting good seal life involves four steps.

• Prepare the pump for the seal.
• Purchase a good seal.
• Install the seal correctly.
• Apply the correct environmental control if necessary.

Prepare the pump for the seal

• Do an alignment between the pump and driver.
• Make sure the shaft is not bent.
• Avoid shaft sleeves. A solid shaft is less likely to deflect and is much better for a mechanical seal.
• Reduce pipe strain where ever possible.
• Try to get the stuffing box face as square to the shaft as possible. There are facing tools available to do this.
• Reduce vibration by any techniques you know or can learn.
• Do not let the pump cavitate. The seal faces will bounce open and possibly become damaged.
• Water hammer can occur if power is lost to the pump while it is running. Maybe you can take some preventative action to avoid water hammer problems.
• Be sure the base plate is level and grouted in place.
• Make sure the bearings have the proper amount of lubrication and that water and solids are not penetrating into the bearing cavity. Replace the grease or lip seals with labyrinth or face seals.
• Avoid discharge recirculation lines connected to the stuffing box. In most instances suction recirculation will be better.
• If the pump has wear rings, check their clearance.
• Seal off any air that might be leaking into the suction side of the pump and remove any that might be trapped in the volute.Purchase a good seal

Purchase a good seal

• Use hydraulically balanced designs that seal both pressure and vacuum.
• If you are going to use an elastomer in the seal try to use an o-ring. They are the best shape for lots of reasons, but don't let any one spring load the o-ring or it will not flex or roll as it should.
• Use non fretting seal designs. Shaft fretting is a major cause of premature seal failure.
• Stationary seals (the springs do not rotate with the shaft) are better than rotating seals (the springs rotate) for sealing fugitive emissions and any other fluids.
• If the seal has small springs keep them out of the fluid or they will clog easily. There are plenty of seal designs that have this non-clogging feature.
• A wide hard face is excellent for the radial movement we see in mixer applications and those seals that are physically positioned a long way from the bearings.
• You will need some sort of vibration damping for high temperature metal bellows seals. They lack the elastomer that normally performs that function.
• Use designs that keep the sealing fluid at the seal outside diameter, or centrifugal force will throw solids into the lapped faces and restrict their movement when the carbon wears.
• Use unfilled carbons for the seal faces. They are the best kinds and the cost is not excessive.
• Try to keep elastomers away from the seal face. The elastomer is the one part of the seal that is the most sensitive to heat, and the temperature is hottest at the faces.
• Any dangerous or expensive product should be sealed with dual seals. Be sure the hydraulic balance is in both directions or you are gambling that one of the faces might open in a pressure reversal or surge.
• If the design has a carbon pressed into a metal holder, be sure the carbon was pressed and not "shrunk in". Pressed carbon will shear to conform to irregularities in the metal holder&emdash;helping to keep the lapped faces flat.

Install the seal correctly

• Cartridge seals are the only design that makes sense if you want to make impeller adjustments and they are a lot easier to install because you do not need a print, or take any measurements to get the correct face load.
• Cartridge dual seals should have a pumping ring built in. Use buffer fluid (lower pressure) between the seals when ever possible to avoid product dilution problems. Avoid any type of oil as a buffer fluid because of oil's low specific heat and poor conductivity.
• Keep the seal as close to the bearings as possible. There is usually room to move the seal out of the stuffing box and then use the stuffing box area for a support bushing to help stabilize the rotating shaft. Depending upon the application you will have to decide if this support bushing has to be retained axially.
• Do not lubricate seal faces at installation. Keep solids off the lapped faces. If there is a protective coating on the seal faces be sure to remove it prior to installation
• Rubber bellows seals require a special lubricant that will cause the bellows to stick to the shaft. It is normally a petroleum based fluid, but you can check with your supplier to be sure.
• Rubber bellows seals require a shaft finish of no better than 40 RMS, or the rubber will have difficulty sticking to the shaft.
• In a vertical application, be sure to vent the stuffing box at the seal faces. You may have to install this vent because the pump manufacturer never provided it. Many cartridge seals have a vent built in that you can connect to the pump suction or some other low pressure point in the system.

Take care of the seal

• The seal would prefer to be sealing a cool, clean, lubricating liquid. We seldom have one of those to seal so maybe you can apply an environmental control in the stuffing box area to change your product into a cool, clean, lubricating liquid:
• If you are using a jacketed stuffing box, be sure the jacket is clean. Condensate or steam are the best fluids to circulate through the jacket. Install a carbon bushing in the end of the stuffing box to act as a thermal barrier that will help to stabilize the stuffing box temperature.
• Flushing is the ultimate environmental control. It causes product dilution, but if you are using the correct seal you won't need much flush. Four or five gallons per hour (notice I said hour not minute) should be enough for that type of seal.
• Keep the fluid moving in the stuffing box to prevent a build up of heat.
• Suction recirculation will remove solids that are heavier than the product you are sealing. Since that is the most common slurry condition, use suction recirculation as your standard.
• Discharge recirculation will allow you to raise the pressure in the stuffing box to prevent a fluid from vaporizing between the lapped faces. Try not to aim the recirculation line at the lapped faces, it could injure them.
• If the product is too hot, cool the stuffing box area.
• It is important to remember that these environmental controls are often more important when the pump is stopped because soak temperatures and shut down cooling can change the stuffing box temperature drastically, causing the product to change state.

Does any one ever do all of these four things? Unfortunately not. If we did, eighty five or ninety percent of our seals would be wearing out rather than the ten or fifteen percent that wear out now. The prematurely failed seal with plenty of carbon face left, continues to be the rule.