The quarrying and mining industries can present a number of challenges for engineers centred on a scarcity of water and high-pressure transfer slurry pump applications. In this article, John Baills, sales director with AESSEAL Australia, looks at how upgrading from gland packing to double mechanical seals (fig. 1) ensures that the equipment is better able to deal with these demanding requirements. Liquids carrying abrasive particles represent the most common type of slurry applications found in industry. The percentage of solids, concentration and particle size create a combination which will result in abrasion and seal failure, if the correct seal and seal environment is not properly selected. Gland packing is still used in the quarrying sector as a means of preventing liquid from escaping around the pump shaft. However, many engineers are choosing to replace this method with mechanical seals because the 'leakage' that occurs with gland packing can create a number of issues.
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