The FSA put its Training in the Digital Age

Henri Azibert

Henri Azibert, as Technical Director for the FSA (Fluid Sealing Association), in May you have during the Annual Meeting of the European Sealing Association (see our article in May), presented FSA Knowledge Base (www.fsaknowledgebase.org). We have some question for you about “Knowledge Base”

eLink: Why did the FSA decide to create the FSA Knowledge Base and which subjects are covered?

Henri Azibert: One of the major strategic initiatives of the FSA is to “Develop, actively promote, and deliver education programs that support the use of best technology in sealing systems”.  We had traditionally provided educational material via handbooks and in classroom sessions.  As the digital age is progressing, it was decided that alternative delivery methods should be experimented with.  Printed material is currently being displaced by online sources, so we decided to build an easily searchable electronic data base, as well as a provide webinar delivery methods.

eLink: Who can have access to the platform, is it a public platform ? can we download the documentation?

HA:   Everyone can access the platform.  The only requirement is to provide a valid email address.  All FSA members can freely download the information, based on their email domain.  We are currently investigating how others may have download access.

eLink : Who created the articles, and who has checked the accuracy of the information?

HA: The FSA Mechanical Seal Technical Committee created the content and reviewed the information for technical accuracy and industry wide acceptance.  As part of the FSA review process, the all Divisions had to agree to the contents.  They are currently planning to add contents for all the Divisions, based on the current handbook publications and their educational material.

eLink: In term of technical support and presentation, does the FSA have a Youtube Channel ?

HA:  Not at this time, but it is in the works. 

eLink :  Henri, we know you worked for Chesterton for 33 years. Today as Technical Director of the FSA, what is precisely you job ?

HA: I wish I knew!  It is primarily to respond to the technical needs of the organization as they arise.   But it is tied to technical expertise as much as it is to government of affairs and membership needs, whatever they might be.  That is what makes the position so interesting.

eLink: Thank you so much Henri for your replies !

Subscribe to knowledgeBase: www.fsaknowledgebase.org

Follow Henri on linkedin

Fluid Sealing Association: http://www.fluidsealing.com/

European Sealing Association: http://europeansealing.com/en

Laurent Prunier Duparge
laurent.prunier-duparge@chesterton.com
Follow Laurent on Linkedin

Exclusive Installation of the 442 Jumbo seals in Spain

In the beginning of 2017 our distributor specialists Israel Arias from THIDRA and Chesterton´s SD Manager from Rome Enrico Zini participated on revolutionary installation of two Jumbo seals 442 in the Hydropower plants in Spain: 

- 530 mm Jumbo seal was installed at C.H. SAU 

- 310 mm seal was installed C.H. VIELHA

Both Hydropower plants belong to ENDESA - the largest electric utility company in Spain. The firm has 10 million customers and generates annualy over 97.600 GWh from nuclear, fossil-fueled, hydroelectric, and renewable resource power plants. It also markets energy in Europe and invests in Spanish natural gas and telecommunication companies as well.

Thanks to the great relationship between our distributor THIDRA and ENDESA the installation of two Chesterton´s Jumbo seals was successful.

Our Regional Manager in Spain Oscar Fernadez gave us a short interview about this: 

- Oscar, how did you come to cooperation with ENDESA´s plants? 
Through our good relationship with partners we found out about leakage issues and offered the solution with our products - Jumbo seal 442! This is it: Customer has a problem - Chesterton offers the best products for solving the issues. 

- Can you describe in details the installation process please? 
The installation of every seal took about 2,5 hours. This considers that the adaptor flange was already installed by the company doing maintenance for the turbine. 

- What was the previous solution actually? 
The previous sulution was carbon segment seal in both cases. 

- What were the customer´s expectations and can you evaluate the results after installation? 
The customer knew already about our pruducts and already used packing for rotating equipment. Both seal installations took place at the beginning of 2017 and the seals are running leakfree!

We look forward to a long leak free lifetime with our 442 Jumbo seals!

If you want to know more, ask Oscar Fernandez



Vitaly is Coordinator Marketing for EMEA
vitaly.igonin@chesterton.com

Valve Packing: Know your Valve Gland Torque

All valve stuffing boxes should be tightened with a calculated, known gland torque. It seems obvious that higher gland stress results in lower leakage and it seems just as obvious that higher gland stress results in higher (unwanted) stem friction. 

Therefore the challenge is to find the packing stress that gives the right balance between acceptable leakage and acceptable stem friction. Since both parameters are of high importance to the performance of the valve it is crucial that the right gland stress is calculated. Packing stress is directly linked to the torque value. For this reason we need to know how the correct gland stress and gland torque can be calculated.

 

In particular for low emission valves this becomes an issue because the forces that need to be applied to the packing set in low emission valves are considerably higher than in comparison with, for example, a steam valve. This is because leakage (read fugitive emissions) from volatile organic compounds such as methane is a lot more problematic than low level leakage from steam, which is plain water. We are talking here about diffusion through the packing material that can only be stopped by increasing the density of the packing material.

So in order to keep stem friction and leakage to an acceptable level we need to calculate the gland torque. 

Chesterton tools to calculate gland torque: 

The Valve Management Tool on the Sales Toolkit 

   The Valve Torque app for iOS and Android 
 

Hans Dekker
hans.dekker@chesterton.com

How Advanced Rotating Equipment Sealing Technologies Help Improve Operational Efficiency

Maintenance trends and Reliability overview

As many mills plants struggle to maintain profitability, plant management is continuously looking for ways to increasing their internal efficiencies. The biggest impact in overall cost reduction will be to focus on the operating costs of production equipment.

While a systematic approach is the key to any improvement program, basic pump reliability starts with some basic considerations. Any discussion about pump reliability has to contain three elements:

Pump failure analysis

1) You must have a clear picture of what life you should be expecting from the pump’s mean time between repairs.

2) You must maximize the life of the pump components.

3) You should not run to failure and be faced with component failures during process. Predictability is a key variable towards reliability.
 

Basic Mechanical Seal

Packing or seals and bearings account for 90% of your premature pump failures. Years ago, most pump shafts were sealed using rings of soft packing, compressed by a packing gland, but this type of shaft seal required a fair amount of leakage just to lubricate the packing and keep it cool.

With the development of mechanical seals, the industry was provided with a technology that did a far better job of restraining product leakage around the pump shaft using  two very flat surfaces (one stationary and one rotating). Even though these mechanical seal faces also require some (very small) leakage across the faces, to form a hydrodynamic film, this leakage normally evaporates and is not noticeable. Mechanical seals fail for only two reasons. If you damage a component (the damage can be either corrosion or physical damage), or if the lapped seal faces open.

How Advanced Rotating Equipment Sealing Technologies Help Improve Operational Efficiency ?

Chesterton Split Seal 442

Split Mechanical Seal Technology:

Since the introduction in 1986, off-the-shelf split seals have been used throughout all process industries and application throughout the world. Convinced of the advantages of split seals on larger rotating equipment, some industry as the pulp & paper industry also quickly adopted split seal technology on a wide variety of applications including fan pumps, agitators and screw feeders.

SpiralTrac with Split Seal 442

Environmental control: the SpiralTrac Technlogy

In addition to these advancements in split seal technology, a revolutionary environmental control bushing has been introduced to the industry that actively evacuates paperstock from the stuffing box. The combination of the split seal and this SpiralTrac environmental controller allow a strong reduction in seal water usage addressing while mean time between planned maintenance is further extended

Bearing Protection

Chesterton 33K Split Bearing Protector

Following the logic of split sealing technology for the pump shaft, advanced split bearing protectors have been introduced to the market in 2008.  The split bearing protector design eliminates the need and associated cost for equipment disassembly while improving on the seal performance of conventional lip seals. 

The entire article have been published in World Pulp & Paper in June 2012

The authors
Zoltan Homoky - Key account manager Pulp & Paper Industry
zoltan.homoky@chesterton.com

Marco Hanzon - Marketing Manager
marco.hanzon@chesterton.com