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| Many plants have small steam turbines to
drive (standby) pumps or other equipment.
The most current sealing arrangment used
is based on floating carbon bushings.
Though the investment cost of this
arrangement is low, the cost of steam
energy losses are significant. Not only
operational cost is high, but bushing ring
life is short and bearing oil is
contaminated by water, resulting in
high manitainance cost. Even safety is
an issue, when the turbine is in operation
often large clouds of steam obstruct
vision in the turbine area.
New gas lubricated wavy face technology is applied by Flowserve FSD to provide the GTS mechanical seal that is especially designed for steam turbine applications, providing the real benefits of a mechanical seal: The GTS seal uses patented thin film Wavy Face technology for non-contact operation on steam as well as on water or water-steam mixtures. The wavy face smooth surface is non-clogging and able to recover from upset conditions. To reduce installation errors and improve interchangeability the wavy face is bi-directional. Both faces are analyzed and designed to be virtually insensitive for pressure and temperature variations. Since the inside of the turbine is much hotter than outside the materials used show a different rate of expansion. The FEA analyzed design of the sleeve reduces distortion which helps maintain face integrity. The GTS uses an Allot 718 bellows along with a lapped joint, which eliminates dynamic gasket problems traditionally experienced in lightly loaded pusher seal designs. | ||||||||||
turso@sealingspec.com |