Custom designed seals and gaskets

When Triumph Motorcycles required a new seal within a three month lead time they turned to Pioneer Weston International, a division of Eriks UK, to develop and supply the seal.

The design and purchasing teams at Triumph Motorcycles needed help when extreme pre-production testing of prototypes of a new model revealed that enhanced sealing for the gearbox output shaft would improve performance and reliability.

Faced with the challenge of sourcing the custom designed and manufactured seals on a short time scale, the engineers at Triumph Motorcycles turned to an organisation which not only had proven expertise in mechanical seals and gaskets, but also an excellent reputation for providing a fast response - Pioneer Weston International (PWI), a division of Eriks UK.

Within just nine days of being asked by Triumph Motorcycles to quote for the project, PWI had submitted a detailed offer, including full engineering drawings.

Triumph placed an initial development order almost immediately, and PWI worked with speed to complete the design and to manufacture production samples.

The seals were required to work continuously at temperatures in excess of 70C in an oil-laden environment on a shaft rotating at up to 3000 rpm.

This meant that the company was not dependent on the vagaries of external support and could, therefore, shorten development, evaluation and testing times significantly compared with other potential suppliers.

As a result, the first samples were produced less than three weeks after the original request for a quotation had been issued - due to close collaboration and concurrent engineering between Triumph and PWI.

Working with these initial samples, PWI was able to confirm the dimensional tolerances of the seals, and also that the material used in their manufacture fully met the requirements of the application.

The company then subjected the samples to rigorous validation test cycles, using its own in-house dynamic test rigs.

Three hundred hours of validation testing was completed and, at this point, the decision was taken to release products to Triumph Motorcycles so that it could carry out its own testing and evaluation.

Validation testing at PWI was, however, continued to a full 600 hours to ensure the full conformity of the seals.

Thanks to the combination of expertise, attention to detail and exceptional resources of the PWI team, the seals proved to be right first time.

This meant that an initial order for production quantities could be placed early in July for delivery early August - in plenty of time to meet the requests from Triumph.

Sheet gaskets

Sheet gaskets are the most commonly used seal between two objects under compression. Compressed sheets for gaskets are manufactured by comprising a matrix of elastomers and inert fillers reinforced with aramid and inorganic fibres which confer temperature and pressure resistance to the material, making it suitable for a wide range of industrial sealing applications. Gasket joint material used in serving of industrial plants and in special water, gas, oils and hydrocarbon (up to a moderated temperature) pipes.

They can be manufactured with aramide and high quality mineral

fibers mixed in a synthetic rubber matrix. This material has exceptional flexibility and behaviour on cutting added to its characteristic of controlled swell in oils, making a material with good suitability for the automotive, machinery construction industry. For general use. It has good resistance to compression, excellent adaptability and low gas permeability.

High quality compressed non asbestos fibre jointing sheets based on aramide and special mineral fibers mixed in a NBR rubber matrix. This material offers high stress relaxation (BS7531 Grade Y, DIN28091 FA-AM1-0), high compressibility and low gas permeability, excellent characteristics for universal services. Material suitable for use with air, water, oils, hydrocarbons, gases and common uses. Particularly suitable for use in compressors, pumps, valves and OEM equipment.

High quality compressed non asbestos fibre jointing sheet made with aramide and high quality mineral fibres in a NBR rubber matrix has the lowest gas permeability value, with the highest tensile strength and the best flexibility. It is a high tech product with the highest

stress relaxation value (BS7531 Grade X, DIN28091 FA-AM1-0).

Pure expanded mineral graphite laminated. Due to the natural characteristics of graphite, this is a high quality material with a universal use in high pressure and temperature services. Furthermore, it has excellent resistance to steam.

CHARACTERISTICS.

This material meets most refinery, petrochemical and industrial service requirements

It has unsurpassed leak tight sealability over extended periods of time and service temperature and is permanently resilient, non-hardening, non-ageing, and has infinite shelf life.