Materials for Mechanical Seals

Synonyms

Aluminum oxide; Ceramics; Mechanical seal face materials; Metallized bound carbon; Reaction bonded silicon carbide; Resin bound carbon; Self-sintered silicon carbide; Silicon carbide; Silicon nitride; Tungsten carbide for seals

Definition

Materials used for the manufacture of mechanical seal faces. These materials must meet the tribological demands unique to mechanical seals. Industry has evolved primarily to the use of mechanical carbons and ceramics for these components. A mechanical seal (Fig. 1) is by its very nature a collection of components that are designed to control leakage of a fluid through a sealing interface. These components serve a wide variety of functions and correspondingly require a wide range of material properties. Many of these properties, such as mechanical strength, thermal conductivity, or corrosion resistance, are similar to considerations made for many other devices. Some properties, however, are unique to mechanical seals, such as coefficient of...