Effect of Lubricants on Frictional Force Developed on Seals for Turbo Power Appliances

Mechanical seals were the machine aspect mainly designed to form a running seal between a rotating and stationary part, especially architect to prevent leakages of liquid or gases in centrifugal pumps, mixers, or other rotating equipment’s. The execution and reliability of the mechanicals seals mainly depends on the wide range of factors such as equipment design, operation conditions, pumped or sealed fluid, pressure and pump speed, support system, material characteristics, choice, and pairing of seal faces. This research work presents an investigative study on the frictional characteristics of alumina, 316 stainless steel, and phosphor bronze materials against resin-impregnated carbon in the form of mechanical seals. To study the frictional characteristics of seal an experimental setup was designed for fluctuating normal load and speed. Among three combinations pairing of stationary and rotary seal alumina versus resin-impregnated carbon exhibited the superior frictional characteristics. Whereas in comparison with 316 stainless steel versus resin- impregnated carbon and phosphor bronze versus resin-impregnated carbon, the latter exhibited the better frictional characteristics. Phosphor bronze pair and 316 stainless steel pair resulted in low and stable friction coefficient in the range of 0.07–0.08 and 0.12–0.13, respectively. This work highlights that the phosphor bronze might be an alternate substitute for the applications involving 316 stainless steel as a seal face material, where the frictional characteristics was a major concern. Lubrication plays a major role in reducing friction between the two surfaces. in mechanical seals lubrication reduces friction between interfaces to operate for extended period of time that operate for extended period of time. The use of organic based vegetables oils has increased worldwide due to biodegradable and nontoxic in nature instead of using mineral oil-based lubricants which mostly affected by environmental issues. In this work we go through with experimental study with pairs of seals material (tungsten carbide and resin impregnated carbon) with eco-friendly lubricant from class of vegetable oils� soybean oil and canola oil with an eco-friendly solid lubricant i.e. boric acid powder. The friction characteristics was studied under unlubricated conditions, independent paraffin oil, soybean oil, canola oil lubricating modes and finally 1 wt.%, 3 wt.% and 5 wt.% of boric acid powder mixed individually with soybean and canola oil. After all running-in test of all lubricating conditions, 5 wt.% of boric acid powder mixed with soybean oil had contributed a hybrid tribo film and resulted lowest friction coefficient value in the range of0.06–0.07.