Mechanical seal with sensor

• Main Authors: Joseph L Savio, Oliver Daniel Hurtig, Ian Martyn Goldswain
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 17.08.2022
• Subjects: BLASTING; CYLINDERS; ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVEFUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; HEATING; INDICATING PRESENCE, ABSENCE, OR DIRECTION, OF MOVEMENT; LIGHTING; MEASURING; MEASURING LINEAR OR ANGULAR SPEED, ACCELERATION, DECELERATION,OR SHOCK; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; PHYSICS; PISTONS; SEALINGS; TESTING; TESTING STATIC OR DYNAMIC BALANCE OF MACHINES ORSTRUCTURES; TESTING STRUCTURES OR APPARATUS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL; WEAPONS

A dry gas seal (22, Figure 2) and corresponding monitoring system 10 a dry gas seal positioned between a stationary housing (18, Figure 3) and a rotatable shaft (20, Figure 3) are provided. A plurality of sense elements may rotate in response to the rotation of the rotatable shaft and a speed sensor 17 may sense the speed of the rotatable shaft at speeds below one thousand rotations per minute based on sensing the plurality of sense elements. An acoustic emissions sensor 19 may sense when a first seal face and a second seal face that form a seal interface of the dry gas seal are in an operational condition relative to one another. A controller 12 includes a processor 11 which may receive output signals from the speed sensor 17 and the acoustic emissions sensor 19. The processor 11 may establish an operating condition of the dry gas seal based on the signal from the speed sensor 17 when the first seal face and the second seal face reach the operational condition relative to one another.