Chemical & Process

In the never ending quest for increased pumping efficiencies, longer lifetimes, and the ability to deal with more hazardous liquids and solids, advanced ceramics are playing an increasing role. Advanced ceramics are now used as pump shafts, seats, bearing surfaces, gears, complete pump bodies, and much more.

Many of these components are found in leading-edge applications such as chemical industry valve sets or oil field flow control devices.

Pumping Components

The excellent erosive wear and corrosion resistance of Technox® zirconias has led to their use in several pump components, typically parts subjected to high stress, such as shafts, couplings, or thrust plates.

Centrifugal pumps are available with all major parts in advanced ceramics materials – with zirconia being used for the shaft, rotor cover, and can. Typical applications areas for such pumps include sludge pumps and process pumps for the chemical industry.

Both Mg-PSZ and Y-TZP components have been successfully applied in petrochemical and process industries as valves, seats, nozzles, etc.

Rotary Seals

One of the first uses for technical ceramics in wear applications was to create ceramic rotary seals. Alumina was the material originally used for ceramic seals and still is in many cases. For rotary pumps, the ceramic ring is fitted to a metal cup, then attached to the shaft where it is spring loaded against a carbon-phenolic ring. The properties sought in ceramic rotary seals are sliding wear and corrosion resistance. The proven properties of wear-resistance and corrosion-resistance of alumina makes it the obvious material of choice for ceramic rotary seals.

Sintered silicon carbide is now being considered for manufacturing ceramic rotary seals due to its longer lifetime, better acid resistance, and pressure-velocity (P-V) ratio. However, the cost is often three times that of alumina.

If you would like more information about our range of ceramic seals, please feel free to call our friendly team on 01270 501000.