Saint-Gobain Seals, a designer and manufacturer of critical, engineered seals and polymer solutions, will be exhibiting at the Paris Air Show from June 17 to 23, with several other strategic business units in their corporate booth located at Hall 2B, E138. Held every two years, this aerospace/space event is a regularly occurring and key exhibit for Saint-Gobain Seals. This year provides the business the opportunity to share their focused product portfolio of sealing solutions that includes OmniSeal® spring-energized seals & rotary lip seals and Ameriseal® metal seals; HyComp® carbon fiber composite material solutions; and Meldin® polymer thermoset solutions as well as highlight their Fluoroloy® A90 polymer material specifically developed for critical applications in jet engine lubrication systems.
With the recent acquisition of HyComp LLC and American Seal & Engineering companies, leaders in composite and metal sealing technologies respectively, Saint-Gobain Seals has geared itself to be a partner that can meet the needs of many aerospace and space Tier 1s and OEMs, providing not only specific critical parts but also co-engineering to provide a complete system.
Along with the above critical seals and polymer parts that are used for high-temperature needs, their Fluoroloy® A90 material has also been designed to help with this growing challenge. It has been tested in various challenging working conditions and proven to be most suited for the following jet engine applications: bearing chambers, sump systems, internal gearboxes and accessories as well as other aerospace applications with high-temperature requirements (e.g., bleed air systems and de-icing systems). Best used with OmniSeal® spring energized seals in extreme applications that have high temperature requirements, the polymer material can withstand temperatures up to 365 °C (690 °F) with a stable retention of compressive sealing force.
Because of this temperature benefit, it is an ideal solution for jet engine lubrication systems where the soak back temperature is sometimes difficult to estimate but does provide between 80 to 100°C more than the permanent working temperature. With a higher performance level (365 °C), Fluoroloy® A90 offers better reliability and a superior safety level in comparison to solutions reaching their maximum performance below 300 °C and only designed for nominal working temperatures.
The OmniSeal® product line of spring-energized seals is a robust solution in itself, being used in many space applications since the start of the NASA program 60 years ago, e.g., Apollo program, space shuttle program, Mars Rover exploration program and SLS program. Saint-Gobain Seals released a special technical white paper for engineers and manufacturers in the space industry to help them gain critical engineering insights and further understand other stressing factors that affect sealing performance aside from leakage rate. Titled “Sealing Solutions in Critical Cryogenic Applications: Going Beyond Leakage Rate,” the white paper detailed key as well as overlooked factors related to seal selection for core systems in extreme environments such as cryogenic fuel tanks and feedlines.
The OmniSeal® rotary PTFE lip seals have also been used as critical parts for many decades in aerospace industry since they are viable alternatives to mechanical or carbon seals solutions when linear shaft speed is above 15 m/s. The lip seals are being used in rotorhead (along with spring-energized seals) and other aerospace applications, including several with linear speed in excess of 90 m/s. Advantages include ease of installation and replacement versus mechanical seals, much less space to be integrated into hardware, and compact design in accessory gearboxes for jet engines but also all accessories connection on turboshaft engines.
Source: http://www.seals.saint-gobain.com/