Keywords
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
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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+Shambans 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 vehicles 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+Shambans system sealing solution
For more information contact: www.busakshamban.co.uk