44
Applications
45
Case Study
Case Study
Summary Industry
Summary Industry Application
Agricultural machinery
Application Rear Axle hub Seal
Unitised sealing arrangement Pioneer Weston were approached by a leading tractor manufacturer, concerning an issue with a competitors seal used on their rear axle application. The seal in question was failing prematurely and was causing a number of warranty claims. The customer was using an NBR standard rotary lip seal initially and then moved to an FKM material, but was still experiencing excessive heat and failure in application.
On inspection of one of the failed seals, it became clear to see that it was not the seal that was generating heat and contributing to failure. Due to the severe slurry-filled environment, the standard lip seal arrangement was allowing ingress, resulting in excessive wear to the main sealing lip and heavy grooving
Tough Legislation New legislation has recently been introduced in the USA that requires a drastic reduction in dust levels. As a result, equipment manufacturers have had to introduce water jets directed at the Continuous Miners’ bits as they operate.
Mining Continuous Miners
Although this has proved effective in reducing the amount of dust in the atmosphere, it is not an entirely successful solution as it can also result in water entering the cutter head, which then causes corrosion, possible premature machine failure, and lost production. One manufacturer of the
to the shaft. The change to FKM did
Continuous Miners contacted Pioneer
not alleviate this problem as there was
Weston to engineer a custom sealing
still ingress due to the profile selection.
solution.
It was quite clear that the customer needed a new design.
Outcome
Outcome
Pioneer Weston chose the R50
Following a meeting to view the
joint went into production allowing the
unitised seal due to its robust design
application and discuss a possible
customer to meet the new legislation
and superior contaminant preventative
specification for the seal, Pioneer
and still maintain their exception
wiper arrangement. This helped to solve
Weston went on to design and
equipment reliability levels.
the customers issues in service and
manufacture a prototype rotary joint
eliminate warranty issues.
for evaluation under normal operating conditions in a mine. The prototype performed well and, following a further engineer’s visit, a final specification with only minor adjustments from the prototype was drawn up, and the new