The Use of FEA and DOE for PTFE Oil Seals Optimization

The use of new methodologies to develop new designs for PTFE oil seals has been researched in the near past by many authors and oil seal makers (1) mainly based on finite element analysis,using their own nonlinear modeling (2) and measurement checks.

This paper will present a similar approach using FEA as a engineering tool with addition of another known technique called DOE, Design of Experiment ( or Tagushi Method) focusing on a specific problem in our industry. Although, both tools are well known in engineer design our personal experience with many Brazilian and foreign colleagues has shown us a different environment. Therefore, another goal is not only to present a study of oil seals mainly for interested oil seals manufactures and customers, it but also to show a concrete example and the possibilities to expand their use in other branches of the engineering.