The Benefits of Air Seals

There are specific applications that are much more challenging to seal than others, mainly equipment that handles slurries and coarser materials. When these products come into contact with traditional mechanical seals, they cause excessive wear and can even shift them out of alignment.

Air seals are a specialized mechanical seal designed to accommodate misalignment and effectively seal products under conditions where traditional methods aren’t as effective. They can be applied to dry and wet applications, from powders and bulk solids to hydro-pulpers and slurry pumps.

A Quick Overview of Air Seals

Air seals are engineered with special clearances and paths to direct the airflow and create a uniform pressure to generate a pneumatic seal. They’re also combined with a floating throttle that accommodates inherent misalignment when handling coarse materials and slurries.

Air seals have many other benefits as well. So long as there is consistent airflow to the seal, they require little to no maintenance and experience very little wear. This makes them a permanent sealing solution and an adjustable one as well. If a change is needed in the system, the pressure within the seal can be adjusted accordingly. Because there’s such minor wear, these seals often outlive the installed equipment.

There are a couple of downsides to air seals. The system must be vented to ensure the equipment being sealed is not over-pressurized, and the product being sealed must be compatible with the medium used, whether air or gas. However, when installed correctly and with attributes in mind, air seals become an excellent sealant solution for many industries.

Air seals are a great upgrade for many applications, especially those handling powders, slurries, bulk solids, and other difficult-to-handle materials. Some of those industries include:

• Pulp & Paper
• Food & Beverage Processing and Packaging
• Chemical Production
• Pharmaceutical

The SEPCO SAS Air Seal

For equipment where contact seals are too costly to operate and maintain, SEPCO developed the SEPCO SAS, an engineered pneumatic sealing system. Our seal is designed to be resilient to angular and parallel shaft movement, and it requires little maintenance after installation–saving you time and labor.

Check out sepco.com today for information about the SEPCO SAS air seal and their other sealing products.