Freudenberg develops low-energy seal design

ERJ staff report (DS)

Weinheim, Germany -- Freudenberg claims to have developed a new style of reciprocating seal, which delivers effective sealing with minimal energy loss, and significantly reduced stick-slip response. The seal combines an elastomer element with a surface coating of PTFE foil.

The design came after a comprehensive benchmarking of existing seal designs. Simrit compared the various different types of piston seal on the market: bonded piston seals, O-rings, D-rings, a combination of O-ring and PTFE sliding ring, and channel gaskets. Criteria for the benchmark included frictional behavior, assembly, shifting time, efficiency, service life, and costs.

And so the basic idea for developing a ground-breaking seal for translatory motion was born: the aim was to combine the best properties of these solutions by securely attaching a PTFE foil to an elastomer element or elastomer metal composite part using dual-layer enhancement in a single seal. Freudenberg Simrit has perfected this extremely complex manufacturing process and developed the D-ring as a groove seal with PTFE foil enhancement (Illustration) as a friction-optimized piston seal for all fields of application.

This general-purpose piston seal solution, which will be presented for the first time at the Hanover Trade Fair 2011, offers very low initial friction, extremely low coefficients of friction, and high heat resistance. Mounting is simple, not direction-dependent, and is similar to that of an O-ring. Moreover, the seal does not twist. This piston seal is very resistant to gap extrusion and can be manufactured in a broad range of designs and with different diameters.

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Press release from Freudenberg - Simrit