Solving Seal Failures in the Construction Industry With Modified Sealing Solutions

Construction creates extraordinarily dirty conditions with dust, sand, mud, and other foreign contaminants that pose a significant challenge to the seals. One of the most critical seals within the system is the radial shaft seal which is also commonly referred to as an oil seal. Radial shaft seals are crucial components that prevent the leakage of lubricants and contaminants in machinery and equipment. In a construction setting, these seals are subjected to extreme temperatures, high pressures, abrasive materials, and frequent mechanical shocks, which can accelerate wear and compromise the effectiveness of the seal over time. Additionally, the diverse range of machinery and equipment used in construction, from heavy-duty excavators to specialized drilling rigs, requires radial shaft seals with varying specifications and performance capabilities. Ensuring the reliability and longevity of radial shaft seals in such challenging conditions is a complex task that necessitates careful design, material selection, and maintenance strategies to minimize downtime and costly repairs.

A leading manufacturer of construction equipment was looking for a seal to withstand harsh environmental conditions and provide cost savings for their compactor and power trowel equipment. The seals from their current supplier were not performing even close to an acceptable level as they were regularly failing resulting in unexpected downtime for the maintenance personnel to replace the seals. The situation cost a lot of critical time putting projects behind schedule, but it also proved to be expensive to replace the seals long before their expected service life was set to be over.

About the Equipment

Compactors are most commonly used for the compaction of the ground to create a strong base for the foundations of buildings, roads, parking lots, and more. They are highly specialized pieces of equipment to ensure the soil is ready to support whatever is being built.

Power trowels are one of the most critical pieces of equipment used to work with concrete, these essential machines are utilized to level, smooth, and polish the concrete surface to its final state. There are two different types of power trowels, “Walk-behind” and “ride-on” both variations operate very similarly but are each best suited for different scales of projects.

The Solution

When our distributor in the United States reached out to us with their customer’s problem, we immediately had our engineering team conduct a technical analysis of the application to understand all of the factors affecting the performance of the seal. Quickly after the analysis was completed we developed and manufactured a custom-modified radial shaft seal that successfully withstands the sandy conditions that these seals are facing in their daily operation. After the testing showed very promising results they were able to provide a smooth implementation of the seals thanks to them being modified to the customer’s specifications.

Since implementation, they no longer have seal failures ensuring confidence that the equipment can be reliably operated between their normal planned maintenance cycles. They have estimated that the new sealing solutions have resulted in a minimum of $25,000 annually in cost savings when considering replacement seals and downtime not to mention the peace of mind provided to customers knowing projects won’t fall behind schedule. Our custom-modified seals provide a reliable supply of seals that deliver cost savings, high performance, and reduced lead times.

Finding the Perfect Modified Solution

Our two-product-brand strategy, with our premium Freudenberg brand Simmerring® and our complimentary Dichtomatik radial shaft seals, ensures you a solution for every application.

Our Simmerring® offers an incredible amount of versatility with its ability to be modified to fit your unique application requirements. This program provides you with the most comprehensive solutions including modifications to your choice of our highly engineered profiles, in-house developed materials, and standard or custom sizes with little to no tooling costs from our own manufacturing facilities. The Simmerring® program allows you to extensively modify the seal to your needs with modified springs, backup rings, standard and pre-greased dust lips, PTFE excluder lips or non-woven excluder lips, FKM plus coating, and eCON electrically conductive non-woven washer among other customizations. This product also comes with an extensive service portfolio including engineering and technical support, local service, and production flexibility, all with our in-house reliable supply chain.

Why choose a modified Simmerring®? Our Simmerring® offers you exceptional quality as Freudenberg Sealing Technologies controls the entire process from the material to the in-house manufacturing and extensive quality control. A Simmerring® is simply peace of mind, as it has been built with performance in mind making it the first choice in safety-critical or highly demanding applications and is the best option for its exceptionally long service life with highly reliable performance.

The Dichtomatik program is a great complimentary offering to the Simmerring® program as it allows us to fulfill your full sealing needs as a one-stop shop. Our Dichtomatik modification program allows you the ability to get a radial shaft seal with our standard Dichtomatik profiles, materials, and sizes. Our Dichtomatik products are sourced from reliable third parties and are our mid-range value-based offering.

When to choose a Dichtomatik modified radial shaft seal? Dichtomatik seals are perfect for highly price-sensitive customers in standard industrial or moderately demanding applications. Dichtomatik stands for quality seals with a great price-to-performance ratio. When in doubt we recommend Freudenberg Simmerring® as your first choice because of its quality, universal use, peace of mind, in-house manufacturing, and value-added services. There is more to buying a seal than just price, the Simmerring® delivers when it comes to quality, purity, reliability, and lifetime value with the total cost of ownership.

Is a Simmerring® with its modification options the right solution for you?

Learn more about product modification