Sealing helps advance fluid control systems for environmentally sensitive applications

Citation

(2006), "Sealing helps advance fluid control systems for environmentally sensitive applications", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 58 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2006.01858aad.006

Sealing helps advance fluid control systems for environmentally sensitive applications

Sealing helps advance fluid control systems for environmentally sensitive applications

Keywords: Sealing materials, Fluids, Sealing processes

PistenBully is a market-leading range of all-terrain machine for grooming ski slopes and traversing extreme, frozen terrain. Central to the function of the machine is the hydraulic system, which, operating in temperatures as low as –50ºC, requires sealing which provides life-time security, since fluid leakage is unacceptable, particularly with operation in such environmentally sensitive regions as the Antarctic and the Alps.

Plate 5 Busak+Shamban’s system sealing solution

For this application, worldwide seal developer and manufacturer BusakþShamban was called upon to provide a system sealing solution (Plate 5). The sealing material was to offer maintenance-free, dynamic sealing, at very low temperatures, with inherent life-time flexibility. Furthermore, the seals needed to be friction and mechanically resistant and provide full life-time service. BusakþShamban met this challenge with the development of seals based on a low-temperature FKM material that was already proven to BusakþShamban technicians in other demanding semi- cryogenic applications, including seals within the “pump nozzle” of liquid hydrogen refuelling systems where sealing flexibility and consequential integrity must be effective at temperatures down to 40ºC.

The sealing solutions provided by BusakþShamban, within the PistenBully application have helped the German manufacturer, Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeuge AG, move on to launch the POLAR 300, their most advanced machine in the range with integral computer-controlled hydraulics (Plate 6). From a single tiller control, the driver is able to adjust the vehicle’s chassis height, manoeuvre the snow blades and grooming equipment, tension the cable, and control the winch. Sealing performance plays a major role in enabling the advanced hydraulically controlled features of the PitenBully to perform – it is a true partnership in practice.

Plate 6 Busak+Shamban’s system sealing solution

For more information contact: www.busakshamban.co.uk