Basic Things you Should Know About Oil Seals – Part 1

Mar 13, 2018 Oil Seals | Material

Oil seals play a crucial role in all rotating and moving part assembly as they act as a physical barrier to retain lubricants, whilst excluding dirt, moisture and other contamination. They are manufactured in a wide range of sizes and specifications to meet several demanding sealing applications across industries. This post, which has two parts, discusses some of the must know things about oil seals. Read on to understand the seals better!

General Features of Oil Seals

Designed to offer optimum sealing performance, oil seals guarantee extreme durability even under high-peripheral speed. They are light-weight, compact, and exhibit high self-lubricating performance. As oil seals are manufactured using high-grade materials, they last long without showing the signs of any kind of hardening, softening or ageing.

Types of Oil Seals

As mentioned earlier, oil seals are available in varied designs to best match the applications. A few of the commonly available types include:

Type A single lip rubber coated w/spring
Type ADL double lip rubber coated w/spring
Type AO single lip rubber coated – no spring
Type AODL double lip
Type B single metal lip-metal case w/spring
Type BDL double lip
Type BO single lip – metal case
Type BODL double lip metal case
Type C single lip full metal case w/spring

Types of Oil Seals

Choosing the right seal is important as it determines the sealing performance by effectively preventing the leakage of lubricating oils and the ingress of contaminants.

Materials of Choice

Oil seals are made from several materials. However, the material must be chosen considering several parameters including operating temperature, environment, pressure, and maximum shaft surface speed, among others. The most commonly used materials for oil seal construction are as follow:

PolyTetraFluoroEthylene (PTFE)
Fluoroelastomer ( Viton )
Silicon
Poly Acetal
Nitrile
General Purpose Polyurethane
Nitrile Buna Rubber
Fluorocarbon
Perfluoroelastomer
Polyacetal
Thermoplastic Elastomer
PTFE Filled Polyamid
Hot Water Resistant Polyurethane
Hodrogenated Nitrile
Ethylene Propylene
Fluoro-Silicone
Polyetheretherkeytone
Polyamid
Polytetrafluoroethylene*
Composites
Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene

Applications of Oil Seals

Oils seals find immense applications in agriculture, automotive, construction, material handling, mining, oil and gas, and so on. They are used in the assembly of:

Conveyors
Elevators
Engines
Grinding Mills
Pipelines
Wind Turbines

So far, we have discussed features, types, materials used in the construction, and applications of oil seals. In the next post, we will discuss few more general things about oil seals.