Reducing Operating Temperatures of Elastomeric Sealing Lips

The life of an elastomeric seal is highly dependent upon the temperature between the lip and the shaft. High temperatures will promote early failure if the limits of the material and/or sealing fluid are exceeded.

A seal design with a sinuous or wave-like contact path on the shaft will substantially lower the interface temperature, thus promoting long life. In addition, the sinuous pattern provides a positive pumping action which improves seal reliability. The selection of wave parameters to give low-interface temperature with sufficient pumping ability to offset seal and shaft defects is discussed. Experimental data show the effect of seal design and wave parameters upon performance.