the magazine for maintenance & reliability professionals

Protection PrecisionBearing Housing Protection and Lubrication

Upgrade Your Bearing ProtectionAESSEAL Bearing Protection Range

Reduce the Red by Going GreenIncreasing Pump Uptime, Reducing Costs and Saving Water

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AESSEAL is a global leader in the design, manufacture, and supply of reliability-focused products for rotating machinery. These products comprise the following broad families: •Wetcontactingmechanicalseals •Drynon-contactingmechanicalseals •Sealsupportsystems(barrierfluidsystems) •Bearingprotectorseals(bothfacetypeandrotatinglabyrinthtypes) This flier contains technical product information and typical case histories relating to the last two product families: Bearing Protectors and Seal Support Systems. In difficult economic times, these products have been proven time and again to:

ExtendequipmentlifeReducetotalcostofownership

ReducedowntimeandlostproductionExtendmeantimebetweenfailures(MTBF)

Savemillionsofgallonsofwaterperpump,peryearSavethousandsofdollarsofenergycostsperpump,peryear

Eliminatethelossofcostlylubricantsandextendoildrainintervals AESSEAL, in cooperation with Uptime Magazine, is pleased to provide you with three practical articles that deal with seal support systems and bearing protection. We hope that you will find similar opportunities within your own organization for major reliability improvements and cost savings. Please contact your local AESSEAL office at the numbers on the back cover and we will be happy to assist you with answers to your questions.

AESSEAL® Water Management

Technology saves global industry5 billion gallons

(19 billion liters) of water per year!

This is an enormous contribution to global water conservation and clearly displays the environmen-tal focus of AESSEAL. The company thanks its cus-tomers for contributing to this achievement and for their promotion and installation of Water Man-agement Systems. The water savings are a direct result of the support and dedication of customers in using reliability focused sealing solutions. AES-SEAL looks forward to continuing its work with cus-tomers to generate even greater water savings!

OF ALL THE WORLD’S WATER:

97.4% is salt water

2% is ice

Only 0.6% is suitable for industrial use and human

consumption

AESSEAL feels that the conservation of water resources is too big of an issue to ignore. WaterAid is an interna-tional charity dedicated to helping people escape the stranglehold of poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation. WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and effective sanitation. AESSEAL shares in this vision and, as a result, it entered into an agreement with Water-Aid to donate a percentage of all profits from Water Management Systems to the charity. This means that every time a customer purchases a Water Management System, it is helping WaterAid to provide clean water and sanitation to those who need it the most.

For more information on WaterAid’s essential work, please visit www.wateraid.org.uk

AESSEAL® Supports Global Water Charity

june/july 2009

Protecting PrecisionUnderstanding Bearing Housing Protection and Reliable Lubricant Application

by Heinz P. Bloch, P.E.and Chris Rehmann

earings are precision components; they require clean lubricants in adequate amounts to survive, and even seemingly small amounts of contamination can greatly reduce equipment reliability and uptime. A new gen-eration of bearing protectors is now available that can help maintain lubricant cleanliness, prevent loss of lubricants, and prolong the life of your rotating equipment.

Where Contaminants Come From

Moisture and dust often enter bearing housings (Fig. 1) through old-style labyrinth seals or lip seals as airborne water vapor, or via a stream of water from hose-down op-erations. Contaminants can also enter through a breather vent, or from the widely used non-pressure balanced con-stant level lubricators (Fig. 2 and Ref.1). An often-over-looked source of oil contamination is abraded oil ring ma-terial, which will be discussed later in this article.

How to Stop the Contamination

Unless the rotating equipment is provided with suitable bearing housing seals, an interchange of internal and ex-ternal air (called “breathing”) takes place during alternat-ing periods of operation and shutdown. Bearing housings “breathe” because rising temperatures during operation cause gas volume expansion, and dropping temperatures at night or after shutdown cause gas volume contraction (Ref. 2). Open or inadequately sealed bearing housings promote this back-and-forth movement of moisture-lad-en, contaminated air.

To stop this breathing and resulting contamination, there should be no interchange between the housing interior air and the surrounding ambient air. Breather vents (Fig.

1) should be removed and plugged.

Instead of the widely used (non-pressure-balanced) con-stant level lubricators (Fig. 2), which allow the oil to come in contact with dirty air, a pressure-compensated (or “bal-anced”) constant level lubricator should be installed (Fig. 3 and Ref. 3). Both devices will be explained more fully a bit later.

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Figure 1 - A typical bearing housing, shown here without modern bearing protector seals

Figure 2 - Constant level (non-pressure-balanced) lubricator (graphic courtesy of TRICO Mfg)

BA

Pump Housing

Figure 3 - Pressure-balanced constant level lubricator (graphic courtesy of TRICO Mfg)

Connector

Finally, full sealing of the bearing housing re-quires the use of face seals. An API-610 com-pliant magnetically-activated dual-face seal used on oil mist-lubricated rolling element bearings is shown in Fig. 4; a similar device is used to seal conventional oil-splash lubricated bearings. The use of a face seal, along with the other recommendations above (plugging the vent and using balanced oilers), will pre-vent the entry of all EXTERNAL contamination into the housing.

Beware of Non-Obvious Sources of Contamination and Insufficient Lubrication

Regardless of whether the bearing housing is sealed or not, the serious limitations of the oil rings (“slinger rings”) shown in Fig. 1 also need to be addressed, as they can be a source of INTERNAL contamination. Operating oil rings on rotating shaft systems that are not horizontal will cause the bronze slinger ring to spin and rub against the low side of the housing, resulting in severe wear on the ring. The resulting bronze particles can clearly damage the bearings.

Beware of oil sumps with incorrect oil viscos-ity, or with varying depths of oil ring immer-sion, or incorrect roundness or rough surface finish of the slinger ring. All of these condi-tions can result in insufficient lubrication from the oil ring.

Not all versions of “constant level” oilers will serve the reliability-focused user well. The oil level below the reservoir bottle of most constant level lubricators is contacted by am-bient air (Fig. 2). In these devices, a wing nut adjustment sets the height of the transparent bottle. The oil level near the tip of the wing nut (Point “B” in Fig. 2) is contacted by the surrounding (ambient) air. An increasing gas temperature (usually air, or an air-oil mixture) in the bearing housing (“A” in Fig. 2) tends to

elevate pressure in the bearing housing. This elevated pressure drives down the oil level in the housing (arrows in Fig. 2), increases the oil level in the narrow annular space above the tip of the wing nut, and can result in overflow of oil from the annular space onto the ground. When this happens, bearings starve for oil and will be quickly and permanently damaged.

Pressure-balanced oilers (Fig. 3) decrease downtime risk (Ref. 3). They differ from the non-balanced type by incorporating an external pressure balance pipe so as to make sure that the pressure inside the

bearing housing and the pressure at the tip of the wing nut in the constant level lubrica-tor are always identical. Consequently, the oil in the bearing housing is pushed down-ward by the hot gas (air) with the SAME pressure that is pushing downward on the oil in the oiler, and there is no change in the oil level.

Bearing protector seals can greatly improve the cleanliness of the lubricating oil and ex-tend the life and reliability of the rotating equipment. However, bearing protector seals serve no purpose if oil contamination originates with oil ring inadequacies or if used with unbalanced oilers, or if the oil is not kept at the proper oil level.

On the other hand, bearing protector seals clearly WOULD have helped prevent the large amount of water ingress into the oil of the bearing housing being drained below in Fig. 5.

Lip Seals vs. Rotating Labyrinth Seals

In today’s economy, many people ask “How can you justify spending $150 on a rotat-ing labyrinth seal, when a lip seal costs only

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$5?” The answer to this question requires us to look at the Total Cost of Ownership, not just the cost of the seal.

Lip seals will seal only while the elastomer material (the lip) makes full sliding contact with the shaft (Fig. 6, upper portion). Operat-ing at typical shaft speeds on process pumps, lip seals show leakage after about 2,000 oper-ating hours (Ref. 4). To prevent contaminant intrusion, one would have to replace lip seals just before they fail --- four times per year, to be safe. In sharp contrast, modern rotat-ing labyrinth seals incorporating the features seen in the lower portion of Fig. 6 (and also in Fig. 8) have been available and operating since 2004. As of this publication date, not one of the many thousands now running has been reported to have failed in operation. Comprehensive statistical and probabilistic assessments using Weibull and WeiBayes analyses have been conducted. One analysis included the few “failures” that occurred dur-ing installation, yet still predicted a compo-nent life in excess of ten years. It would thus be very conservative to assume a four-year life before opting for an early and purely pre-cautionary change-out of the various O-rings in the labyrinth seal. It should be noted that, in modern bearing protector seals, these O-rings are field-replaceable, whereas in the old-style seals of Fig. 7 they cannot be re-placed by the user.

A comparison of the Total Cost of Ownership between a lip seal and a labyrinth seal will prove revealing. Our comparison assumes a cost of $10 for two lip seals (with 4 changes per year) vs. $300 for two rotating labyrinth seals (with one change every 4 years); in each case, the cost of maintenance labor would be $500 per event. Lip seal replacements would cost ($10+$500)*4 =$2,040 per year, or $8,160 over 4 years. Rotating labyrinth seals would cost ($300+$500)/4=$200 per year, or $800 over 4 years. The cost of ownership of the rotating equipment with lip seals is about TEN TIMES the cost of ownership with modern rotating labyrinth seals! By using the available O-ring replacement kit (about $30 each), the cost of ownership of the labyrinth seals can be reduced even further.

Rotating Labyrinth Seals: How They Work and How They Differ

Findings of rapid payback and quantifiable failure reductions are supported both by in-dustry statistics and the failure rate plots is-sued by several lip seal manufacturers. For

Figure 4 - Dual-face magnetic bearing protector seal in oil mist service

Figure 5 - Without bearing protector seals, large amounts of water are often

found in bearing housings

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a r e n e e d e d t o s e e t h i s p i c t u r e .

decades, lip seals have been out of compli-ance with the minimum requirements stated in the widely accepted API-610 industry stan-dard for centrifugal process pumps (Ref. 5). Indeed, most rotating labyrinth seals are a good choice for bearing protection and will generally outperform lip seals by wide mar-gins.

It must be realized, however, that there are many types and designs of rotating labyrinth seals. Different configurations will allow any-thing from a minimal amount of “breathing” and virtually zero oil leakage, to a rather sig-nificant amount of breathing and worrisome leakage. The amounts of breathing and leak-age depend very much on the design and construction features of a given brand and must be compared against the construction features of another design or brand.

Before deciding on a brand, a value-focused buyer will require potential vendors to pro-vide test data and cross-sectional views that disclose the operating principles of different versions of bearing protector seals. Reliability professionals are not asking for the disclo-sure of proprietary manufacturing drawings; however, they are entitled to see exactly what they are about to purchase. Some ven-dors may refuse or are unable to provide data other than marketing claims and anecdotal references, and they deserve neither one’s time nor active consideration.

When looking at different labyrinth seal de-signs, note that certain old-style designs in-corporate specially contoured rotating lip seals which slide on a stationary component (Fig. 7, right).

Other seal designs are fitted with an O-ring that moves radially in and out of a groove (Fig. 7, left). Some manufacturers use these O-rings only to make the seal into a cartridge-style assembly and have ignored the conse-quences of an O-ring contacting simultane-ously the sharp edges of the rotating and the stationary elements of the seal.

Available area of contact is important in O-ring devices; basic engineering principles tell us that pressure equals force divided by area of contact. When we apply a given force to a large area vs. applying the same force to a small area, the resulting contact pressures will differ in proportion to the ratio of the contact areas. Sliding one’s finger over the sharp edge (small contact area) of a knife will have more pressure (and do more damage!) than sliding one’s finger over the dull back of the knife (large contact area). The sharp area of contact of the old-style labyrinth protector design shown above in Fig. 7 (left diagram) is much more likely to damage the O-ring seal than the large, smooth area of contact shown in the design in Fig. 8

The rotating labyrinth bearing protector seal of Fig. 8 uses two O-rings to clamp the rotor to the shaft. This makes it considerably more stable than seal designs that use a single O-ring as a clamp for the rotor (Fig. 7). There is more stability with two clamping O-rings and the risk of rotor skewing or “walking” is re-duced. If the dynamic O-ring of Fig. 7 were to make contact with the grooves in the stator, undesirable frictional heat would be generat-ed, and O-ring degradation would take place. O-ring degradation (wear) is sometimes ob-served as “black oil.”

Certain modern bearing protector seals are en-gineered hybrids (Fig. 9) that incorporate both the face-contacting features of a lip seal with the gen-erous wide-contact and shut-off valve features of the modern rotating labyrinth seal in the lower portion of Fig. 6. The lip seal shown in Fig. 9 provides excellent oil re-tention while sealing on an internal shaft sleeve to

prevent damage (fretting) to the equipment shaft. Meanwhile, the outboard labyrinth and shut-off valve keep out water and air-borne particulates, which are a lip seal’s worst en-emies. This design gives the user the “best of both worlds”.

Best Lube Application Practices Examined

Plant-wide oil mist lubrication systems have proven their superiority since the late 1960’s (Fig. 10 and Ref. 6), with demonstrated reduc-tions of pump bearing failures from 80 to 90% (Ref. 7). The advantages and disadvantages of oil-mist lubrication as compared to wet sump lubrication may be summarized as follows:

Figure 6 - Lip Seal (Upper Illustration) and Modern Rotating Labyrinth Seal

(Lower Illustration)

Figure 7 - Rotating labyrinth seals with (left) dynamic O-ring opposite sharp-edged groove and (right) a sealing lip

engaging a tapered groove

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Figure 8 - Modern Bearing Housing Protector Seal.

Note how rotor is clamped to shaft with two O-rings for stability, and how the large cross-section dynamic O-ring (brown color) contacts a large, smooth surface area for

effective sealing.

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Advantages:

• Reduced bearing failures of 80 to 90% • Lower bearing operating temperatures of 10 to 20 F. • Flushing-off bearing wear particles. • Slight positive system pressure elimi- nates contaminant entry. • Reduced Energy costs of 3 to 5%. • Reduced oil consumption of about 40%. • No moving parts

Disadvantages:

• Capital investment • Cost of compressed air

We had earlier commented on the dem-onstrated vulnerabilities of oil application methods that depend on oil rings. While it is acknowledged that oil rings are satisfactory as long as shaft peripheral speeds are neither too slow nor too fast (Ref. 3) and as long as shaft horizontality, ring immersion, ring ec-centricity, bore surface finish and lube oil vis-cosity are well controlled, reliability-focused thinking has led to a re-examination of the

vulnerabilities of oil rings.

Elastomeric oil slinger DISKS (Fig. 11) are being used by many equipment owners to replace the oil slinger RINGS. The disk is attached to the shaft with set screws, and eliminates ALL of the previously discussed problems with oil rings involving the shaft being out-of-level, too much or too little oil in the sump, oil viscosity, out-of-roundness, and surface finish roughness.

Summary

Rolling element bearings are pre-cision components which require a very clean film of lubricant in the appropriate amount (nei-ther too much nor too little) in order to provide rotating equip-ment reliability and long life. Modern bear-ing protectors can both prevent the entry of contaminants, as well as the loss of lubricant. Two types of modern bearing protectors are now available: contacting face-seals, and ro-tating labyrinth seals. The payback period for a modern bearing protector, as compared to a lip seal, can be as fast as 4 or 5 weeks, after which it begins saving the equipment owner as much as $1,000 to $2,000 per year in avoided maintenance costs.

References

1. TRICO Manufacturing Corporation, Pewaukee, WI, Commercial Literature Also, see Ref. 3, pp. 118, 144, 232, 2342. Charles, Jacques; Les Ancient Papiers de l’Academie Francaise, ~17873. Bloch, Heinz P. and Allen Budris; “Pump User’s Handbook—Life Extension,” 2006, Fairmont Press, Lilburn, GA 30047; ISBN 088173-517-54. Brink, R. V., Gernik, D. E. and Horve, L. A. “Handbook of Fluid Sealing, “1993 (McGraw-Hill, New York).5. American Petroleum Institute, Alexandria, VA, API-610, “Centrifugal Pumps”, 10th Edition, 20096. Bloch, Heinz P.; “Practical Lubrication for Industrial Facilities,” 2nd Edition (2009), Fairmont Press, Lilburn, GA, 30047 (ISBN 088173-579-5)7. Bloch, Heinz P. and Abdus Shamim; “Oil Mist Lubrication--Practical Applications” (1998), Fairmont Press, Lilburn, GA, 30047 (ISBN 088173-256-7)8. TRICO Manufacturing Corporation,

Pewaukee, WI, Commercial Literature, Also, see Ref. 3, pp. 126, 232, 238

Heinz P. Bloch (hpbloch@mchsi.com) is a professional engineer with offices in West Des Moines, Iowa. He advises process and power plants worldwide on reliability improvement and maintenance cost reduc-tion opportunities. Heinz is the author of 17 full-length texts and over 400 papers and technical articles. His most recent texts include “A Practical Guide to Compressor Technology” (2006, John Wiley & Sons, NY, ISBN 0-471-727930-8); “Pump User’s Handbook: Life Extension,” (2006, Fairmont Publishing Company, Lilburn, ISBN 0-88173-517-5) and “Machinery Uptime Improve-ment,” (2006, Elsevier-Butterworth-Heine-mann, Stoneham, MA, ISBN 0-7506-7725-2)

Chris Rehmann is Marketing Manager for AESSEAL’s North American operations. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Prior to that, Chris worked for Schlumberger, an oilfield engineering firm, for 15 years, holding positions in field engineering, technical sales, and management in the USA, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. He joined AESSEAL in 2002, moving his family from Saudi Arabia to Knoxville, Tennessee. Chris has taught several courses and authored a number of technical papers dealing with bearing protection on pumps, electric motors, oil mist, and gear boxes. He can be reached at: AESSEAL, Inc., 355 Dunavant Dr., Rockford, TN, 37853, chris.rehmann@aesseal.com or 865-531-0192.

Figure 10 - Oil mist lubrication applied to a pump housing in accordance with API 610, 10th ed. Note dual mist injection points and use of face seals to

prevent mist from escaping to atmosphere.

Figure 9 - Example of a Hybrid Labyrinth Seal and Lip Seal

Figure 11 - Elastomeric flinger disk used for lubricant application (2008)

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cannot seal in flooded applications where the lubricant level is higher than the bottom of the shaft.

The dual-face bearing protector seems inherently better. Are there any disadvantages in using it or are there any conditions where dual face protectors should not be used?

On the one hand, the dual-face bearing protector (see Figure 2) is usually the best device for truly sealing a bearing housing or a gear-box. In fact, we recommend that the bearing chamber breather be

april/may 20097

upgrade SpotlightingEditor’spicksofhotproducts&servicesintheindustry.

AESSEAL’s Bearing Protectors

First, why don’t you briefly explain in layman’s terms why the use of bearing protectors of some kind is so important?

The two primary causes for premature bearing failures are under-lubrica-tion and lubricant contamination. A bearing protector will keep the oil (or grease) in the bearing where it belongs, as well as keep water and solid particles out of the bearing. The basic purpose of a bearing protector is to keep the oil in, and to keep the contaminants out. It’s that simple.

Now why don’t you tell us the difference between Contacting vs. Non-Contacting protectors? The pros and cons of lip seals, labyrinth seals, single-face bearing protectors and double-face bearing protectors?

Contacting bearing protectors come in two types: lip-seals, which have a rubber lip that contacts the rotating shaft via a thin film of oil, and face-type bearing protectors, which have rotating and stationary contacting face(s), much like a mechanical seal.

Non-contacting bearing protectors include various labyrinth-type protec-tors, of both rotating and stationary designs. A labyrinth is basically a tortuous path, which makes it difficult for water to enter, or for oil to leave, the bearing housing. Modern labyrinth bearing protectors have oil and water capture and expulsion mechanisms, as well as an elastomeric member which helps to prevent atmospheric moisture from entering the chamber when the equipment is not operating (day-night “breathing”, see Figure 1). Non-contacting, rotating-labyrinth protectors do not generate heat, and do a good job of containing splash-type lubrication, but they

We have all heard that bearings can have an almost infinite life, or that, with proper installation and lubrication, they can last longer than the machine in

which they are installed. Unfortunately, this almost never happens. Bearings fail. A lot of bearings fail. Why? Of course, there are a multitude of reasons, includ-ing improper installation, excessive loading, under lubrication, over lubrication, excessive vibration, and, one of the leading causes — contamination. Read on

to explore a relatively simple way to protect your seals from this highly effective bearing killer. AESSEAL, Inc. is a highly innovative company that produces several

different types of bearing protectors, including the original double face bearing protector, MagTecta.

We tracked down Chris Rehmann, the Business Development Manager for AESSEAL, Inc, to give us a little more insight into bearing protection.

Chris holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and has authored many technical papers and

presentations on bearing protection. Here is what Chris had to say...

Across all industries, there are more bearing failures than there should be. Why so many bearing failures? Contamination is one of the main reasons, so let’s look at a product that can have a drastic effect on extending bearing life.

Figure 1 - Day-Night “Breathing”, as shown on an older-style labyrinth isolator. Warm air from operating equipment

expands and is expelled from the bearing chamber (left). When the equipment cools down, it draws in cool, moist

night air (right).

bished at a fraction of the original price, fur-ther extending the savings.

Give us a success story or two from compa-nies that are using AESSEAL protectors now.

1) A chemical plant in Germany has five, large Hosokawa conical powder mixers. The original seal at the top of the mixing screw was a mechanical seal. The custom- er was changing this seal every 2 months, and maintaining a low vessel fill level, to minimize damage from powder entry into the overhead gearbox. MagTecta dual-face bearing protectors were installed, and are still running fine after 9 months. The customer estimates actual benefits of $125,000 over these 9 months due to (a) savings from avoided repair costs, (b) increased productivity due to more up- time, and (c) increased productivity due to higher filling levels of the vessel.

2) An Elliott turbine in a major refinery suf- fered from steam leakage past the carbon rings and the split stuffing box. This steam contaminated the bearing lube oil, which had to be changed every 2-3 weeks. Lab- Tecta labyrinth protectors were installed on the bearings in June, 2008. Steam con- tinues to leak past the carbon rings, but NO contamination of the oil has been observed. This has resulted in 13 avoided oil changes over those 9 months, and a payback period of only 3 months on the LabTecta investment.

How can interested people get more informa-tion about AESSEAL bearing protectors?

The easiest way to learn more about our bear-ing protectors is to go to our Bearing Protec-tion website, www.bearingprotection.com. All of our product brochures are available there for downloading, in several languages. In ad-dition, in the lower right hand corner of our home page, you will find links to a large library of “best-practices” technical papers.

To find the nearest AESSEAL Global Sales of-fice or Distributor, go to the www.aesseal.com home page and click on CONTACTS, then enter your location information in the search criteria boxes, and click on SUBMIT.

We can also be reached at our Knoxville, TN, N. American headquarters at 865-531-0192, or email us at labtectausa@aesseal.com. We have a large, trained technical staff that can help you with the toughest bearing protection applications.

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removed and plugged when dual-face bearing protectors are installed, so as to eliminate ALL of the contamination points of entry.

On the other hand, the labyrinth isolator does a good job of protection on most splashed-oil applications, at a moderate price.

It is important to note that all contacting de-vices generate frictional heat, and require lubrication. Face-type seals, therefore, have relatively low speed limits when used in dry-running applications, and a labyrinth isolator is generally preferred. Also, in flooded-oil appli-cations, specially-designed bearing protectors are available and must be used.

What kind of impact can the proper bearing protector have on overall plant and machinery reliability?

By reducing or eliminating contaminant entry, lube oil changes can be reduced significantly. And, since the oil is now both prevented from escaping and protected from contamination, superior (but more expensive) synthetic lubri-cants may now be cost-justified. Synthetic lu-bricants provide cooler bearing temperatures for longer bearing life, and can achieve energy efficiency gains of 1 to 2%.

In the case of oil mist lubrication, using a face-type bearing protector that is specially designed to contain oil mist will eliminate the “historical” loss of oil mist in the vicinity of the pump. This upgrade results in not only envi-ronmental and housekeeping benefits, but real cost savings from loss of expensive lubricat-ing oil mist. In addition, a face-type bearing protector is the ONLY type of protector that should be used according to the latest API 610, 10th Ed. oil mist configuration.

What are the three top reasons a company should consider using AESSEAL bearing protectors?

AESSEAL is the only company which provides the full range of bearing protectors, from laby-rinth protectors to dual-face protectors. As we

discussed earlier, it is important to select the right protector for your application; one type does NOT fit all applications. With AESSEAL, you can choose from the widest variety of bearing protectors for standard and special ap-plications, including split seals, axially-moving seals, air purge for dusty applications, flood-ed-oil seals, pillow-block design with angular movement, stainless steel or bronze versions, top-entry design, oil-mist design, and others.

The LabTecta labyrinth protector is easily field repairable, while other protectors are not.

The LabTecta shut-off valve (see Figure 3), which opens during equipment operation to allow hot air to escape, but closes when equip-ment is shut down to prevent cool moist air from entering, seals on a large, well-contoured area, resulting in near-zero wear, even in slow-running or frequent start-stops. Other protec-tor designs seal on a sharp metal surface, caus-ing damage to their elastomeric valve during start-stops.

What is the time frame a company can expect for a return on their investment in AESSEAL protectors?

Many companies have seen their investment in AESSEAL bearing protectors completely paid back in a few weeks or months, depending on the cost to repair the equipment, and the frequency of repair before installing the bear-ing protectors. Most companies insist on a payback of less than 6 months to justify the investment, and our bearing protectors nearly always beat this payback time. After the pay-back period, the company begins enjoying real savings from the bearing protector, with total savings often reaching several times the origi-nal investment. Availability of low-cost repair kits mean that the LabTecta can be field-refur-

Housing

Shaft (stoppe d)

Atmosphere Bearing Chamber

Static Seal

Figure 3 - LabTecta labyrinth protector, showing static seal on

smoothly contoured surface while equipment is stopped. Also note dual-drive O-rings on rotary element, which leads to much greater stability during operations than a single drive O-ring.

Figure 2- MagTecta dual-face bearing protector.

oct/nov 2009

Reduce the Red by Going GreenIncrease Pump Uptime, Decrease Costs With Water Management System For Mechanical Seals

by Chris Rehmann

ising cost and shrinking availability of clean water for operating industrial pumps are of concern to many plant managers, as is as the high cost of treating this water for disposal. For over a half-century, the ac-cepted method of providing cooling and flush water for mechanical seals and packing has been to pipe plant water through the seal or packing, and then to drain. Under this scenario, the normal consumption

of water is 1.7 million gallons of water per pump, per year.

A water management system that cools and re-circu-lates the water can reduce this water consumption to just a few gallons per year. This water management sys-tem also increases the pump reliability and mean time between failures (MTBF) significantly, with a return on investment (ROI) that is usually around 6-12 months. Additionally, significant energy savings is documented through the use of this system, by greatly reducing or eliminating the amount of energy needed to heat the flush water up to process temperatures, and then to boil/evaporate this water from the product.

Water, Water Everywhere…

“Almost 3 billion people will face severe shortages of wa-ter by 2025 if the world keeps consuming water at current rates…” United Nations Report

“Even where supplies are sufficient or plentiful, they are in-creasingly at risk from pollution and rising demand. Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent con-flict…” Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General

“The simple fact is that there is a limited amount of wa-ter on the planet, and we cannot afford to be negligent in its use. We cannot keep treating it as if it will never run out…” Mohammed El Baradei, Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Of all the world’s water, 97.4% is salt water, 2% is frozen in glaciers and ice caps, and only 0.6% is available for human consumption and industrial use. As the above quotes illustrate, our water supplies are finite; the sources of supply are becoming increasingly polluted, and are asked to supply ever-larger volumes. The Unit-ed States is struggling with long-term water shortages in California and the Southeast, shortages which will not be overcome by one or two good years of rainfall. We have also heard about the serious drop in the water level of the Ogallala Aquifer which underlies 8 central states, from North Dakota to Texas, due to over-pump-ing of this water resource for crop irrigation.

Clean, fresh water is a limited resource which is under increasing pressure on our planet. There are compel-ling reasons to actively pursue water conservation mea-sures that are both proven and economically justified.

The Impact of Industry

The 2nd most common machine in industry (after the electric motor) is the pump (Figure 1). It is estimated that there are about 600 million industrial pumps in the world (not counting about one billion pumps in domes-tic use, such as dishwashers, clothes washers, automo-bile water pumps, etc). These industrial pumps rely on a mechanical seal (Figure 2) or packing to seal the rotat-ing shaft and contain the pressurized liquid within. Me-chanical seals and packing require clean fluid, usually water, and lots of it, for cooling and lubrication. As our world has become more industrialized, the population of pumps has grown accordingly, and so has our de-mand for clean water to service these pumps.

However, the rising cost of water, along with increas-ing awareness of the long-term consequences of unre-stricted water use, has caused many forward-thinking companies to reconsider their traditional, wasteful

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Figure 1 - Cutaway view of a typical industrial centrifugal pump, with the mechanical seal inside

the black square (see Figure 2 for detail).

Figure 2 - Enlargement of area inside black square of Figure 1, to show detail of double

mechanical seal.

water use practices. Moderate investments in proven new water-conserving technology can achieve financial payback within the first year, while also having beneficial effects on our global water supply that will last for de-cades.

The Importance of a Fluid Film

Process pumps usually use a mechanical seal to contain the pressurized fluid by creating

a sliding seal between the rotating shaft and the pump housing. This mechanical seal is engineered to operate with a thin fluid film sepa-rating the highly-polished rotating and stationary seal faces (Figure 3). The face materials and seal de-sign are selected specifically for the particular pump application parameters and fluid properties (pressure, temperature, viscosity, etc.). The fluid film may consist of either the pumped process fluid, or a special fluid such as clean water may be introduced under pressure if the process fluid is not suitable (e.g., if it is too hot, too high solids content, tends to crys-tallize, etc.)

If this fluid film is not stable or not present, the two faces will contact, overheat, and damage each other and the mechanical seal will fail, causing the pump to fail (see Figure 4). When the seal fails, the entire pump unit is removed and repaired, at an average cost of $2,500 per repair. This is the maintenance cost (parts and labor) only and does not in-clude the value of lost production, which can be thousands of dollars per hour.

The fluid film can be adversely affected by process upsets that lead to dry-running of the seal, which can include:

• Process changes upstream that lead to no liquid product at the pump.

• Operator error (opening or closing a valve which stops product flow to the pump, etc.)

• Cavitation, where there is inadequate net-positive suction head to the pump and the liquid product changes into a vapor state at the impeller.

Mechanical seal faces can also be damaged by product crystal-lization due to temperature and pressure changes across the face. Suspended solids in the pumped liquid are another major cause of seal damage, and these solids must be kept away from the faces with a supply of clean water to form the fluid film or the seal will fail prematurely.

Old “Water-to-Drain” Plan

Many industrial plants supply their double mechanical seals with a fresh supply of barrier water using

www.uptimemagazine.com 10

the “water-to-drain” method, or API Plan 54 (shown in Figure 5).

In the water-to-drain plan, plant water is sup-plied to all of the double mechanical seals in parallel from a water header main. This plan can work satisfactorily if all conditions start out perfectly and stay perfect, but as we know, this level of perfection is rarely found or maintained in a real, operating, industrial plant. The water-to-drain plan is prone to process upsets that cause seals and pumps to fail, for example:

1. Water will take the path of least resis- tance. If the pressure and flow rates of each branch of the piping are not set exactly right at startup, most of the water will selectively flow through the pipe with the least resistance, leaving the other seals to starve for water and seal failures can result.

2. If one mechanical seal fails and allows pro- cess fluid to enter the water supply line, All of the seals can be cross-contaminated and thus lead to multiple seal failures.

RotatingFace

Stationary Face

Figure 3 - Mechanical seal faces with a fluid film of fresh, clean water will run

cooler and longer.

Figure 4 - Dry-running of mechanical seal faces destroys the fluid film,

resulting in overheating and failure.

RotatingFace

Stationary Face

Contaminated Recirculation Water

Water Header - Flow

API Plan 54

Figure 5. Typical “water-to-drain” method of cooling mechanical seals on pumps.

Environmental protection and sustainability efforts have been an important focus for Cargill.

Efforts to reduce our companies’ environmental footprint and usage

of natural resources have been underway for many years. AESSEAL’s innovative solutions for our pump

applications have been one avenue in which our plants have reduced water consumption, in addition to

the reliability and cost benefits achieved.

Timothy Goshert, Worldwide Reliability and Maintenance Manager, Cargill

“The 21

st Century

Bearing Protector”

AESSEAL Deutschland AG, Kurparkstrasse 1, Bad Orb D-63619AESSEAL Deutschland GmbH, Heidigstrasse 9, Kronau D-76709

Pumps, Electric Motors, Fans, Blowers, Rotary Valves, Conveyors, Pillow/Plummer Blocks, Rolls ...Pumps, Electric Motors, Fans, Blowers, Rotary Valves, Conveyors, Pillow/Plummer Blocks, Rolls ...

Process12%

Seal4%

Install/Align5%

Workshop7%

Seal System22%

Operations37%

13% of mechanical seals faildue to equipment bearing failure;“Fitting modern labyrinth sealsshould eliminate these problems”

www.L

abTecta.co

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Source: Stephen Flood “Mechanical Seal Reliability - WhatRealistically can be Achieved” presented at The MechanicalSealing Technology Seminar, IMechE,London, April 2007.

DESIGNS AVAILABLE:• Air Purge• Radially Divided• Axial Shaft Movement• Angular Shaft Movement• Flooded

GIVING IMPROVED ...• Equipment Life• Process Uptime• Operational Profit• Environmental

AND REDUCED ...• Bearing Failures• Maintenance Cost• Operational Losses• Clean-up Costs

IP55 & IEEE Std 841-2001COMPLIANTAESSEAL Deutschland AG

Tel: +49 (0) 6052 918810Email: info@aesseal.de

AESSEAL Deutschland AGTel: +49 (0) 6052 918810Email: info@aesseal.de

DESIGNS AVAILABLE:• Air Purge• Radially Divided• Axial Shaft Movement• Angular Shaft Movement• Flooded

GIVING IMPROVED ...• Equipment Life• Process Uptime• Operational Profit• Environmental

AND REDUCED ...• Bearing Failures• Maintenance Cost• Operational Losses• Clean-up Costs

IP55 & IEEE Std 841-2001COMPLIANT

Figure 6. Closed-loop water management system tank connected by tubing to a

mechanical seal.

3. If an alternative flow path is created, for example by an operator turning on a large water line for wash-down, the pressure and flow of water to the seals will drop and this could lead to seal failures.

4. If the quality of the water being supplied by this system is poor, it will lead to solids being delivered to, and collecting on, the seal faces; this will lead to premature seal failure.

In addition to these failure modes, water-to-drain has the following cost considerations:

• If the supply water is being purchased from a municipal supply, the cost of the water can be very high, as can be the cost of treatment and disposal of the waste water.

• The typical water flow rate on a water- to-drain plan runs an average of 3.2 gallons per minute to drain. Running 24/7, this amounts to a staggering 1.7 million gallons of water per year, per pump, running to the drain.

New Water Saving Solution

The solution to the shortcomings of the wa-ter-to-drain plan is to install a water manage-

ment system tank above each pump (shown in Figure 6). Recall that the sliding faces of the mechanical seal (at lower left in Figure 6) create frictional heat in the seal. Heat is also added to the seal by the hot pumpage. Hot barrier water from the double seal rises

up to the tank via the upper tube, where the heat is radiated to the atmosphere; the cooled barrier water is then returned to the seal through the lower tube. Circulation of the barrier water from the seal to the tank, and back to the seal, is maintained by the thermo-syphon effect (basically, hot water rises and cool water falls), with no moving parts. In cases where more flow of the barri-er fluid is required, pumping assistance can be obtained from an optional bi-directional pumping ring in the seal itself.

The tank is connected to the plant water main and automatically tops up with water to replace the very small amount (about 30 gallons per year) of barrier water that is lost at the seal faces during normal operation. The tank is maintained at a pre-set pressure that is one bar (15 psi) above the pump’s stuffing-box pressure, to maintain a positive pressure differential across the seal faces that ensures clean barrier water is forming the fluid film (as opposed to process liquid). Additional cooling can be accomplished, where necessary, by adding fins to the tub-ing, adding a cooling coil to the tank, and/or using a larger tank.

A diagram of a typical multi-pump layout

oct/nov 200911

IP56 & IEEE Std 841-2001 COMPLIANT

Figure 7 - Typical industrial plant layout of pumps, seals, and tank systems.

Drain Empty - No Waste

Water Header - Flow

AES Water Management

System

is shown in Figure 7. Each tank system serves just one seal/pump set, and is isolated from all other tanks. (Note that only 3 tanks/pumps are shown in the figure, but many hundreds of tanks/pumps are often connected in practice.)

The advantages of this system in-clude:

• The waste water-to-drain is completely eliminated, with huge savings in water re- sources, the cost of water, and the cost of treating waste water. A single tank/seal com- bination typically uses only about 30 gallons of water per year, thus typically saving 1.7 million gallons per pump per year.

• Water from the plant main line passes through a check valve which prevents contamination caused by a seal failure from passing back into the main, so each pump and seal is isolated; one seal failure does not ad- versely affect other pumps.

• A pressure regulator on the water feed line into each tank sets the tank pressure at the correct pressure for that pump, so each pump can operate at a different pressure and have a fluid film that is maintained at 1 bar (15 psi) over its stuffing box pressure. Note that the maximum pressure possible in each tank is equal to the plant’s main water line pressure.

• Each tank/seal/pump is a stand-alone system; changes in the operating condi- tions of one pump or the water flow to one seal do not affect the water flow to the seals of any other pump.

• Changes in the main line pressure, such as turning on a wash-down hose, do not affect the operation or the pressure in the tank systems, as each tank is isolated by its own check valve.

• The water quality is greatly improved by installing a filter on the incoming line to each tank. Since only about 30 gallons of water are used per tank per year, the filter will last a long time before plugging. Cleaner water leads to longer seal life.

Additional Savings

In addition to eliminating water-to-drain and the pump seal life extension, there is one more way that water management systems save plants large sums of money, in those

instances where the plant is us-ing single mechanical seals. Fig-ure 8 shows an API Plan 32 on a single mechanical seal, where clean water is used to flush and cool the seal faces. Cold water passes from the incoming line at upper left in the figure, into the stuffing box, and directly into the hot product. As much as 3 million gallons of water per year can be injected into the process liquid by a single pump using API Plan 32. In many processes this water must be heated up to the process temperature and ul-timately evaporated out of the product, using large amounts of additional energy.

On a typical pulp and paper mill sealing application, with the incoming flush water at 60° F, and mixing with process fluid at 140° F, the cost of energy for heating the flush water to pro-cess temperature costs $4,000 per year. The energy to evap-orate this water at the end of the process costs an additional $9,000 per year. Ironically, this API Plan 32 water addition is not easily visible and so this huge water usage, and result-ing waste of energy, is often not even recognized as such by the plant operator.

A water management tank sys-tem used with a double mechan-ical seal to replace the single

mechanical seal in Figure 8, eliminates both the wasted water and energy by re-circulat-ing and cooling the barrier water to the seal faces.

CASE HISTORY #1Tanks, Double Seal and Flow Fuse on

Agitator

Guinness/Diageo, a major beer brewery in Dublin, Ireland, was experiencing failures of the single mechanical seals on their hot wort agitators about every 6 months. The vessels on which the agitators are mounted contain about 25,000 gallons each and must be drained completely for an overhaul, lead-ing to a great deal of down time and lost production. When the seals failed, the wort leaked straight onto the floor, causing a loss of valuable product, as well as a safety

Water Used to Flush Faces

(some installations include a Throttle Bush)API Plan 32

Mechanical Seal Pump

Figure 8 - API Plan 32 showing water used to flush seal faces entering the product, where it must then be heated

and evaporated with additional energy input.

We have installed numerous AESSEAL water management systems in our plants globally. In these cases we

have seen improved reliability of our pumping systems due to increased

MTBF. These installations and activities have reduced our maintenance costs

and helped reduce water consumption.

Timothy Goshert, Worldwide Reliability and Maintenance Manager, Cargill

www.uptimemagazine.com 12

hazard. Any proposed remedy had to also prevent the addition of water into the ves-sel, since dilution of the product was not al-lowed at this point in the process.

The proposed solution was a double me-chanical seal with a water management sys-tem. Because the hot wort could not with-stand dilution, the system includes the Flow Fuse automatic valve shown in Figures 9 and 10 below, which detects an abnormally high water flow rate and shuts off the plant water main supply to the tank system. This action protects the hot wort product by preventing water entry into the agitator in the event of an inboard mechanical seal failure.

The water management system package has been in place for 2 years with no seal fail-ures (recall that the previous MTBF was six months). The payback period based only on the cost of repairs (not including lost pro-duction) was only 180 days.

CASE HISTORY #2Tanks & Double Seals Replace API Plan

32 Single Seals

A pulp & paper mill in the USA uses API Plan 32 (Figure 8) to flush their single seals, with considerable energy required to (a) heat this flush water up to process temperatures, and (b) evapo-rate this excess water off at the end of the process. Five bleach filter pumps were fitted with water management tank systems and double seals in October 2008, and monitored over the following 9 months. First year savings (from en-ergy, water, wastewater, and reliability) were calculated at $41,800, with an ROI payback on the investment cost (parts and labor) of the new tanks and seals of 1.2 years.

Spurred on by these excellent results, the paper mill has now completed a comprehen-sive mill survey to look for additional savings opportunities. A total of 604 pumps/seals were surveyed, and 144 pumps (24% of to-tal) were deemed to be “highly energy ineffi-cient”. A capital project is being considered to convert these 144 pumps to double seals and tanks. Annual savings are conservatively estimated to be $473,000 per year, with wa-ter savings of 174 million gallons per year.

CASE HISTORY #3 Tanks Replace API Plan 54

Water-to-Drain

At a food processing operation with a total of 6,300 pumps, water management tank systems have been installed on 1,310 (20% of total) of the most arduous “bad actor” pumps over a six year period. Of the 1,310 upgrades, 750 (57%) are running with no failures since the upgrades began in 2001. Prior to the upgrades the seal life for the population of 1,310 pumps was 2.58 years. After the wa-ter management systems were installed, the seal life improved to 3.42 years.

The upgraded population of pumps had 2,127 failures prior to the upgrade, and only 1,059 failures after the upgrade (during the six year period). Using an average cost of a pump repair of $2,500, we find the savings in avoided repair costs shown in Figure 11.

The savings to the equipment owner, based on equipment life alone, resulting from the upgrade to water management systems is thus $2,670,000 - $1,345,000 = $1,325,000. Additional savings have been realized from the 1,310 pumps X 1.7 million gallons per pump per year = 2.2 Billion gallons of water saved per year.

During normal operation of the Flow Fuse, the red button is flush with the casing.

Figure 9 - Flow Fuse in normal operation. Water from the plant main line is allowed to flow at very low flow rates to the water management system tank,

making up small amounts of water lost to normal seal operation.

During normal operation, the primary water path is open to replenish the tank system.

When excess water flow is detected, the red button protrudes from the casing.

The primary flow path shuts off when the Flow Fuse triggers (within 2 seconds), isolating the water supply.

Figure 10 - Flow Fuse detects excessive water flow into the water management system tank (possibly due to an inboard mechanical seal failure), and shuts off the water supply to the tank within 2 seconds.

Prior To Upgrade

After Upgrade

Failures 2,127 1,059Cost/Repair $2,500 $2,500Total Cost $5,317,500 $2,647,500

Cost of Avoided Repairs $2,670,000Total Cost of 1,310 H2O Management Systems $1,345,000

Figure 11 - Savings realized with installation of Water Management System.

oct/nov 200913

Summary

Water management tank systems, used in conjunction with double mechanical seals on pumps, agitators, and mixers, will gener-ate significant cost savings due to:

• Virtually no water usage and no associ- ated costs for either buying city water or treatment of pond water. Savings of 1.7 million gallons of water per pump, per year have been frequently documented when used on API Plan 54.

• No waste water treatment and disposal; again, as much as 1.7 million gallons per pump per year on API Plan 54.

• No energy needed to heat the flush water introduced into the process up to process temperatures using an API Plan 32.

• No energy needed to boil/evaporate added flush water from the product (Plan 32).

• Increased pump lifetime and reduced pump overhaul costs.

• Less downtime and associated lost production.

These tank systems are pressurized by the plant water main to 1 bar (15 psi) above the pump stuffing box pressure. The tanks use no moving parts, simply relying on the “ther-mo-syphon” process to circulate hot water away from the mechanical seal, release the heat to atmosphere, and return cool water to the mechanical seal. This clean, re-circu-lated water extends the life of the mechani-cal seal and the uptime of the pump by flush-ing solids away from the seal faces, as well as cooling the seal faces. The systems are maintenance-friendly, requiring no external compressed air for pressurization, and do not require any manual intervention for re-filling.

The standard flow indicator gives a quick visual indication of an inboard seal failure, which is difficult and costly to identify other-wise. An optional Flow Fuse will shut off the plant water supply when it detects an abnor-mally high flow of water, such as that caused by an inboard seal failure.

ROI payback periods for water management tank systems with double mechanical seals are typically 6 to 12 months, after which the tank systems continue to generate large sav-ings for the remainder of their 10 to 20 year lifetimes.

Chris Rehmann is Marketing Manager for AESSEAL, Inc., (www.aesseal.com), who design and manufacture mechanical seals, seal support systems, and bearing protec-tion, and sell these products from offices in 32 countries. Chris earned a BSEE from the University of Notre Dame, and held various international management positions with an oilfield engineering firm for 15 years before joining AESSEAL’s North American headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee in 2002. He can be reached at chris.rehm-ann@aesseal.com.

All illustrations courtesy of AESSEAL, Inc., Rockford, TN, USA. Special thanks go to Cargill and Tim Goshert for their valuable contributions to this article, to Guinness/Diageo brewery for providing information and approval to use Case History #1, and to Terence McCarthy and Jonathan Broderick of AESSEAL, Ireland.

www.uptimemagazine.com 14

AESSEALWaterManagementSystemsconnect to the plant water line to feed the mechanical seal with a clean, cool and stable water barrier fluid. Water Management Systems are self replenishing and pressurizing, and are able to regulate down the pressure available in the plant water line. This is a reliable and cost saving Seal Support System method for a number of reasons:

Consider It A Savings Account For Your Company and the Planet

Visit www.aesseal.comand click on SEAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS for more information.

Increased Plant Uptime • Increased Mean Time Between Failure • Reduced Water Usage and Costs Reduced Operator Costs • Reduce Energy Usage and Costs • Environmentally Friendly

FAST Return on Investment (ROI)

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web: http://www.aesseal.com email: seals@aesseal.com

Our Purpose: ‘To give our customers such exceptional service that they need never consider alternative sources of supply.’

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