Mechanical seal runs for 17 years without problems
A Convertor II cartridge mechanical seal from AESSEAL, a specialist in the design and manufacture of mechanical seals and support systems, ran for 17 years at an African sugar plant saving thousands in maintenance costs.
South African sugar producer, Tongaat Hullett Sugar was unhappy with the amount of maintenance required on the sealing of one of its pumps.
The pumps on site were all sealed with gland packing, and the mean time between failure for this particular pump was just two weeks. When the pump failed, the plant had to stop operations for four hours at a cost of ZAR 300,000 (around £13,000) per hour as there was no backup pump. Unhappy with this situation, the customer turned to AESSEAL for assistance.
AESSEAL recommended replacing the gland packing with a Convertor II cartridge mechanical seal. The new seal was installed in July 2004 and ran without problems for 17 years before it failed in May 2021. This solution was the first time a mechanical seal had been used to seal a pump on this site and saved the sugar producer approximately ZAR 1,200,000 (over £50,000) per year.
