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AVTSSI CASE STUDY Packing versus Mechanical Sealing Overview

Since the conception of Mechanical Seals in the 1920’s it has been recognised as a more effective sealing solution for rotating industrial assets. An extensive range of gland packing’s are still used today in many applications such as fire water pumps, effluent water pumps, valve packing’s, and so on. However, it is recognised that a mechanical seals offer significant improvements and enhanced compliances in many areas including:

• Product loss • Power Consumption • Emission

Process/Manufactured Product Loss A key consideration when making the decision to install a mechanical seal over gland packing is that typically a mechanical seal will reduce transferred product leakage by circa 99.0% when compared with gland packing. The above statement is not a surprise when we consider that in a packed solution the controlled leakage of pumping fluid is essential for extending the life of gland packing. Power Consumption The amount of power required to drive a mechanical seal is less than a pump with gland packing. Gland packing creates a seal by compressing the packing against the gap between the pump casing and shaft to control leakage. Usually more than one packing will be required for an effective seal depending on the pressure and depth of the stuffing box. The power demand will increase with an increase in the number of packing rings used. A Mechanical Seal with an appropriate face design will offer a significant reduction in frictional losses,

AVTSSI CASE STUDY Food & Beverage

Need advice? Contact our experts Phone: (630) 889-8900 Email: info@avtssi.com Website: www.avtssi.com AVT Sealing Solutions Inc. 1070 N. Garfield Street, Lombard, IL 60148

thereby a mechanical seal generally offers a reduction of circa 75% to 80% power consumption depending on the technology applied and the application. Emission Emission legislation is forever becoming more demanding with a consistent move toward the target of Zero Emissions. Mechanical Seals have a clear and measured advantage of packing in reducing emissions and meeting the legislative levels required. Customer Example A South African based Sugar Refiner was using gland packing on two screened juice pumps and two mixed juice pumps with a quench to drain seal support system. This was costing over ZAR 21,300 (£1,216) in lost product and using 1.8 million litres of water each year.

A recommendation was made to replace the packing with AESSEAL CDPN Mechanical Cartridge Seal supported by a SWO2 Water Management System, operating set up API 54B. Thereby the seal and water management system operated in a closed loop environment which provided a significant water savings compared to the quench to drain system used previously.

Further benefits could be demonstrated through the prevention of manufactured product released to the local environment. The new project innovation was evaluated 18 months after installation and at that time the system was still operational with no reported failures. Project evaluation after 18 months demonstrated the solution continued to operate without any maintenance requirement.

The cost of the upgrades to the four pumps was repaid within 17 weeks and saved the customer over ZAR 107,500 (£6,121) in the first year of operation and ZAR235,500 (£13,450) in subsequent years.