sealing technology
- March 26, 2024
Overcoming Seal Failures with Freudenberg EPDM 291
Sealing failures aren’t only a major headache, they can be extremely costly when you consider replacement costs, lost production time, wasted product due to the risk of contamination, and the time spent by maintenance staff to find and replace the seal. Unfortunately, this can be a very common issue when you utilize the wrong seal for your equipment. With every application having unique requirements, it can be challenging to pick the right seal to reliably perform at a high level. A large global manufacturer that specializes in health and well-being enhancement products was having just this issue with regularly facing significant challenges with the seals of their centrifugal equipment.
Seals for Centrifugal Equipment
Used to separate partials by their density from fluids, gases, and solids, this equipment spins incredibly fast typically at 100 to 200 plus revolutions per minute (RPMs).
- March 21, 2024
Gallagher Fluid Seals is a Parker Distributor is proud to be proud to be one of the few premier distributors to qualify as a “Parker Seal Technology Center (STC)”.
Double Chamfer Radial Seals
More often than not, an O-ring makes for a great sealing element. They seal over a wide range of pressure, temperature and tolerance. Normally they require very little room, are readily available, and easily sourced. However, there are specific applications that may be better suited for an alternate type of seal, such as a double chamfer radial seal.
- March 18, 2024
The 5 Ps of Compression Packing Installation
Pump and valve packing is a tried and true way to seal an application. But there are SO MANY styles of packing, choosing the correct braid configuration, fiber type, cross-section, etc., for your specific application can be extremely difficult.
Gallagher is here to help you along in the process. We represent numerous packing braiders, so we can find the best packing for you and your company, or even create a custom one. But where does the packing selection process start?
Lee Gillette, our GORE field sales representative, set out to answer that question in an article in Pumps and Systems magazine.
"The first step is to remember the '5 P's of Packing Installation,'" Gillete writes.
They are:
1. Proper selection
"Several braid configurations, packing fibers and combinations of packing fiber materials
- February 22, 2024
The Importance of Sealing Your Valves - Brewery Edition
You've probably seen the video. A Minnesota brewery worker had an unexpected surprise when a stream of beer exploded out of a brewery container, sending him flying backwards. Brendan Babcock, a brewer at Back Channel Brewing Co., was checking a brewery container in January when ale suddenly shot out of a tank valve.
The stream pushed him backwards, sending him barrelling to the floor, where he landed on his back. Babcock leapt
- February 16, 2024
Clean-in-place seals, or CIP seals, were developed to allow a seal to remain in place. This is especially important when the seal gland is partially open, allowing the seal to be flushed of debris.
In a food application, the same chemicals used to clean or flush the system would be used to clean the seal gland. Similarly, when other products such as pharmaceutical or adverse chemicals needed to be flushed, the CIP seal does an excellent job being open to flushing.
- December 12, 2023
Picture this: You have an application using a standard O-Ring. The O-Ring seals great, but is wearing out very quickly, and friction is far exceeding the goals of the system.
You retrofit a fancy PTFE spring energized seal that costs 1000 times more than the O-Ring…only to find out it leaks!
Did you get a defective seal? Is the seal designer incompetent? Is the raw material bad?
Actually, everything about the design and manufacturing of the spring energized seal could be perfect, and you could still find yourself with leakage.
While blaming the seal might be your first instinct, the leakage in fact, could have nothing to do with the seal itself, and everything to do with the surface finish of the hardware it’s trying to seal against.
- December 07, 2023
Spring Energized Seal Guide
Spring Energized Seals are designed for applications with high pressures and temperatures, cryogenic fluids, extreme media and other service conditions which exceed the performance characteristics of O-rings and conventional elastomeric seals.
We introduced our Spring Energized Seal guide in 2016 are we're happy to share that it's now available for FREE to download.
When elastomeric seals fail
- November 15, 2023
Customer Overview
World leading manufacturer of level measurement technology. Their key product lines support RF admittance level instrumentation as well as ultrasonic, hydrostatic, radar, and magnetostrictive instrumentation
Customer Problem
Gallagher’s customer required a custom-sized grommet made from Kalrez® perfluoroelastomer material, but had specific cold temperature requirements
How Gallagher Got Involved
The customer worked with Gallagher on a variety of seal applications in years past with great success, requiring both design and engineering expertise
- September 21, 2023
CNC Machining Seals with a Haas Automation Machine
CNC machining, which stands for Computer Numerical Control, is a manufacturing process in which pre-programmed computer software dictates the movement of tools and machinery.
The process can be used to control a range of complex machinery, from grinders and lathes to mills and CNC routers.
But in our case, Gallagher is utilizing this process to cut both custom and standard seal profiles for our customers.
CNC machining seals can be great for rapid prototyping or small production runs.
- August 23, 2023
Customer Overview
Global leader and manufacturer of specialty chemicals and natural materials. Their product line includes a variety of additives and chemicals such as: monomers and polymers, surfactant blends, polyglucosides, and oils.
Customer Problem
Customer experienced an issue on their RV-7 dryer in a chemical application; their food grade compression packing was flaking, causing white specs, fibers, and flakes in the end product, which caused equipment maintenance and unplanned downtime.
Gallagher’s Solution
Through testing and evaluation with a site visit