A big advantage of EagleBurgmann is the strong collaboration between the different departments. The business unit ‘Technical Sales Support’ unites experts from different industries and markets under one director. “We have regular team meetings to ensure that the knowledge between different industries is transferred”, Lopez mentions. During these meetings, challenging applications can be discussed. “As the preliminary calculation of a hard/hard combination did not show the desired leakage rates, I presented the problem to my colleagues during our ‘team table’”, Lopez remembers. A solution was provided by the power plant unit.
“Sealing ultra pure water is typical for the power plant industry and not common in the oil and gas industry”, Maximillian Huber from the power plant group explains. Due to the fact that the water has a very low electrical conductivity, the tribological electrical charging produced by the surface friction cannot be grounded by the insolating water. That is why corrosion on the sliding surfaces occurs.”
The power plant department knew from several applications that this problem could be reliably solved by using a seal face combination of DiamondFace® versus Buka 30 (Carbon Silicon impregnated). “This combination is a well-proven solution for mechanical seals operating with Ultra-Pure water in high-speed applications, increasing equipment reliability and availability while reducing the operating costs”, Huber explains. “It has a lower leakage rate than hard/hard sliding materials. The technology has been used in power applications by EagleBurgmann for over 10 years.
A proven solution
One advantage of this solution was that it had already undergone rigorous testing by EagleBurgmann. “In extensive laboratory tests and field installations, it has been proven that DiamondFace® is resistant against electrical currents and hence resistant to electro corrosion”, clarifies Lopez. EagleBurgmann identified the root of the failures and designed a solution that could deal with the demanding requirements of this application, which included a very high sliding velocity (>31 m/s) and the Carbamate process fluid with its tendency to crystalize quickly. The SHI mechanical seal is dual pressurized with Plan 54 (already provided with the original seal) and Plan 32 (external flushing); both operate with de-ionized water. Plan 32 is recommended to avoid Carbamate accessing the dead-end areas of the mechanical seal, where it could crystalize, hence causing a hang-up of faces and premature seal failure. “With Plan 54 you can ensure that your process media will not leak to the atmosphere, so that the environment does not suffer any damage”, expresses Huber.