To eliminate vegetable oil and steam leaks in the production of snack foods, Neocooper Industrial Solutions, together with CinchSeal, has developed a new mechanical sealing system for drive shafts of frying processors, making the production of fried foods more hygienic, safer and more environmentally friendly. As a result of a three-year test and improvement period, the new CinchSeal NECAS seal is the solution for all “Hot Oil” applications in the food and process industry.
The core of the seal is a split elastomer from AFLAS, which is placed around the drive shaft and, clamped by a dovetail joint, is glued together. AFLAS is a new synthetic rubber that has all the benefits of Viton and is also resistant to hot organic steams. The AFLAS elastomer is secured with a hose clamp and protects the shaft against wear, prevents leakage along the shaft and rotates together with the drive shaft. The elastomer transmits the rotational movement to two PTFE sealing discs, which also rotate with the shaft. The PTFE sealing discs on the product and atmospheric side seal off against a stainless steel housing, which creates an internal compression. The PTFE sealing discs and the housing can also be split, so that no disassembly of the bearing and motor is required during installation.
This project was started at an international chips manufacturer, which was trying to replace the gasket seals because leakage burned the cooking oil in the cord gaskets, causing smoke, odor and harmful substances such as trans fats and carbons. In addition, the cord gaskets caused wear on the drive shafts, so that they had to be metal sprayed after ten years at the latest, which meant a large and expensive job with 13 shafts with a length of 2.5 meters and a diameter of 200 millimeters per processor line. The constant leakage also led to intensive cleaning and frequent bearing damage.
After an initial test phase of eight weeks with mechanical seals from different manufacturers, the CinchSeal shaft seal was the only model that showed no leakage and the customer decided to work with Neocooper Industrial Solutions to develop a seal model that would meet the specific requirements and a service life of min. 24 months. The seal could not be supplied with a compressed air connection, as necessary to support compression in the seal housing, so a hose clamp model was designed. The connection of the divisible PTFE sealing discs had to be reinforced in order to achieve the required service life with an operational process time of 4 times 6 months continuously, with one week for maintenance and cleaning in between. In addition, the standard silicone elastomer was found not to be sufficiently resistant to the hot steam and had to be replaced after 18 months. Therefore, after an intensive study of the different rubber materials, a test with the new AFLAS elastomer was decided and this was the breakthrough to meet all the requested requirements.
The customer has made the decision to equip all six processor lines with the new CinchSeal NECAS seal and the first processor line will be upgraded in the spring of 2021. For more information about CinchSeal shaft seals, please visit our website or contact Mr. Christian Wermeter of Neocooper Industrial Solutions.
