How picking the right elastomeric hydraulic seal material is more than just chemistry and a catalogue. Use a seal material catalogue Useful elastomer materials What to watch out for Formulations change over time Specialist compounds Shelf life Machined seals Talk to an applications engineer After 30 years, Sarum Hydraulics knows quite a lot about seals [...]
As someone who has more than once been left unconvinced that a thickness called up on a drawing was what had been produced, I was interested to read of last week’s awful legal case where a new yacht had run aground, the hull split and the owner brought an action against the yacht builder claiming that [...]
We certainly know our seals here, we've been designing pumps for 30 years! Here's some of what we've learnt: Think carefully about designing in a seal unique to one manufacturer. It is a right headache if they are suddenly on a 16 week lead. There are Chinese seals and Chinese seals. Bearing in mind that [...]
The issue of shelf life You wouldn't buy sausages when the shelf life was just about to expire and expect them to be good three weeks later; so why do we do this with elastomeric seals and sealants? Why would any manufacturer buy materials that are nearly past their sell-by date when for the same [...]
A Micropac pressure test or filling pump is a mighty useful tool. It inherently has a much greater fluid capability than most units as long as you keep a few pointers in mind. A Micropac is designed for a wide range of fluids. Our pumps cope with a massive range of viscosities because we use [...]
A hydrostatic pressure or proof test is a very blunt tool. Pressurise it up to a factor in excess of working pressure and check there is no leakage or deformation which would indicate design, manufacturing or safety issues. Unfortunately, our experience has been that a blast of high pressure is not the miracle tool if [...]
Hydraulic seals are the cornerstone of all hydraulic systems. We know that manufacturing problems involving these inexpensive parts can prove very disruptive in terms of lost production time. Reliability issues with these seals can inflict reputational damage on a manufacturer that is out of all proportion to the price of the part. So, how come [...]
