Major reliability improvement with CSSN seals

With Richard Munro

What was the main problem the company was facing and how long had they been struggling to find a solution?

The main problem on the site was downtime of the pumps as the cooling towers are critical to the operation. Seal replacements are done in situ, depending on the condition of the pump bearings etc. The original seal was a component two-piece seal and clamp plate, which is difficult to fit and install on a big pump in situ. I was called out one night to assist in fitting this component seal, which we did. The next day I visited the site and presented a simple solution, that being a single CSSN cartridge seal, with ease of installation being the main driver. In the meeting, we discussed the bearing condition and constant oil contamination. I then presented the LabTecta 66 design to them and immediately they ordered both the cartridge design seal and two of the LabTectas (drive end and non-drive end).

Why were the seals on the cooling tower pumps failing and leaking?

The majority of the time it was installation issues, as well as bearing failures due to contamination.

How serious would the problem have become if a solution had not been found?

Downtime was the major problem and constant after hours call out for specialists to come in and fix pumps.

Was the installation of CSSN seals an obvious solution? What made it an ideal replacement for the previous seals?

Definitely upgrading from component seals to cartridge design seals is the solution. Ease of installation, no miscalculating working lengths – basically, plug and play.

Was this an existing customer? Did they approach AESSEAL and how pleased were they with the work?

They are an existing customer which only procured DMSF seals on their PE pumps which we retrofitted from a competitor having done a full pump analysis and proposal. Yes, they were pleased with the upgrade, and all five pumps are now fitted with cartridge seals and LabTectas.

How much money will this have saved them and has AESSEAL received any more orders as a result?

With improved uptime and a lot less call outs, I’m pretty sure this would have saved them money. We are slowly retrofitting the plant to AESSEAL from two of our new orders for different seal designs and bearing protection, the new seal designs supplied being SCMS, CKD and DMSF seals.