Eliminating Seal Failures in Slurry Applications with "Vulcassette"

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Overview

Vulcan Seals’ custom design provided a groundbreaking solution for a global manufacturer facing severe slurry substance challenges on positive displacement pumps. This innovation significantly reduced clogging, pump downtime, and maintenance costs while enhancing overall system reliability.

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The Challenge

A multinational manufacturer faced persistent issues with traditional cartridge mechanical seal designs that employed multi-spring technology on positive displacement pumps. The application involved a challenging slurry substance of fine, soft, sticky particles interspersed with cellulose-based fibres. These conditions caused the mechanical seals’ moving parts to become quickly clogged, preventing the seal faces from correctly adjusting. As a result, leakage occurred shortly after installation, leading to:

  • Frequent pump downtime: Extended operating hours were interrupted by the need for unscheduled maintenance.
  • Increased maintenance costs: Due to the cartridge mechanical seal’s short lifecycle (replacement needed after 72 hours), regular pump strip-downs and seal repairs/replacements significantly raised operating expenses.
  • Inefficiency in sealing performance: Traditional mechanical seals could not effectively manage the harsh slurry conditions, compromising overall system reliability.

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The Vulcan Seals Solution

Our R&D expert engineers introduced the “Vulcassette” custom solution design, a groundbreaking design that completely removed the springs used to energise the primary seal surfaces. Key features of the solution included:

  • Elimination of moving parts: Removing springs meant there were fewer surfaces and mechanisms for slurry particles to accumulate, thereby reducing clogging.
  • Innovative Design Approach: Simplified the energisation method and integrated carefully selected sealing materials to overcome chemical incompatibility and inadequate wear resistance, key issues that led to failures in traditional mechanical seal technology.
  • Self-adjusting seal mechanism: The new design allowed the seal faces to re-adjust automatically, even after minor impacts or blockages.
  • Potential for enhanced reliability: Although on this occasion, the manufacturer did not utilise the built-in seal cleaning system, the option to circulate cleaning water around the sealing face area further improves performance by preventing particle deposition.
The “Vulcassette” custom solution

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The Result

The fundamental design change to the “Vulcassette” custom solution delivered significant improvements:

  • Extended run times: Pumps operated for much longer periods between maintenance strip-downs, reducing process downtime.
  • Reduced maintenance costs: With less frequent seal replacements and repairs, overall operating expenses were substantially lowered.
  • Enhanced reliability: The self-adjusting capability ensured that minor leakages caused by oversize contaminants or impaction were promptly corrected without manual intervention.
  • Simplified servicing: The “Vulcassette” design allows adjustments to be made when the equipment is not rotating, eliminating the need for complete removal from the shaft during planned maintenance. On-site repairs with a service kit further streamline the maintenance process.

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Contact the Vulcan Seals Experts

For industries and applications facing similar challenges with complex or critical equipment, Vulcan Seals offers a wealth of expertise in designing and manufacturing custom-engineered solutions that meet specific operational requirements.

Please use the form found on our Contact Us page and a Vulcan Seals expert will get back to you as soon as possible.

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