Effective sealing solutions are crucial in a critical manufacturing setting. Unreliable seals can lead to leaks in mechanical components, equipment damage, and even more severe consequences. To avoid costly damage, you need to ensure that you’re utilizing strategies to boost seal performance, reliability, and safety. While there may be off-the-shelf seals available, finding the right one for your specific application requires expert support. The sealing industry is a specialized field with a wide range of materials and technologies to consider.
How can you improve seal performance and reliability in manufacturing?
Improving seal performance is critical to avoiding leaks, equipment failures, and costly downtime. In manufacturing environments, seals must withstand extreme temperatures, pressure, and chemical exposure—meaning off-the-shelf solutions often aren’t enough.
At Sealing Specialties, our services help clients achieve better sealing outcomes with five proven strategies:
- Reliability consulting
- Engineering assistance
- Prototyping and testing
- Production volume planning
- Custom sealing solutions
Read on to see how each approach can boost safety and long-term reliability in your sealing applications.
1. What is Reliability Consulting in Sealing?
Seal reliability consulting services is an important cornerstone in our reliability assessment process. It’s one of the many human elements of our client-centered manufacturing process to help determine the ideal seal for your application. We begin by understanding your needs and objectives to assist you in achieving them. Then, we perform comprehensive seal reliability evaluations. This includes laboratory tests and failure analysis to gain an understanding of the obstacles that impede high-performing reliable and safe sealing solutions. Our experts then collaborate with you to find the most suitable seal materials and technologies for your specific application.
2. How Can Engineering Assistance Improve Seal Performance?
Engineering support ensures that every seal is designed to meet your exact performance needs. Our in-house and factory engineers collaborate with you to evaluate:
- Application parameters (pressure, speed, media, temperature)
- Material compatibility
- Dimensional constraints
From CAD design to tooling and samples, we support every step to ensure the seal performs safely and reliably under operating conditions.
3. Why Does Production Volume Matter in Seal Selection?
Maximizing strategies to boost seal performance, reliability, and safety shouldn’t be cost-prohibitive. That’s why assessing your production volume is an important strategy for the success of your project. It determines the unit cost of seals and can affect your total project costs.
How many seals will you need? The answer depends on the service conditions and expected life of each seal, as well as the estimated annual usage. In general, the greater your production volume, the lower your unit cost (i.e., buying in bulk).
For example: if you need 100 custom-made rubber O-rings with a 1-year lifespan at under 1000 psi pressure but are only going to use them once or twice per month instead of daily (or weekly), then each seal will only need to last 3–5 months before needing replacement. In this case, we’d recommend using an elastomeric material like nitrile or polyurethane due to its longer lifespan under these circumstances.
4. What Are the Benefits of Custom Sealing Solutions?
Custom seals offer the performance advantages needed in demanding or non-standard applications. We design and fabricate:
- Unique geometries
- Multi-material gaskets
- Seals with embedded wire/cable protection
With our extensive partner network and material science expertise, we ensure each custom seal is optimized for your specific application—and delivered on time and within budget.
Overcoming Chemical Incompatability
5. How Can Prototyping & Testing Ensure Seal Reliability?
Before full-scale production, prototyping and testing validate a seal’s real-world performance. Our process includes:
- Sample production using intended materials
- In-application performance testing
- Rapid design iterations as needed
This proactive step helps catch performance issues early, reducing risk and ensuring long-term reliability.
Why Choose Sealing Specialties?
With decades of experience and strong industry partnerships, Sealing Specialties is a trusted source for engineered sealing solutions. Since 1986, we’ve helped clients across industries solve complex sealing problems with:
- Deep material expertise
- Access to advanced sealing technologies
- Responsive engineering support
Whether it be a standard or a custom-made seal, Sealing Specialties has the resources necessary to complete the project. Our team of experts has successfully delivered hundreds of solutions to clients globally since 1986. If you’re facing a complicated sealing problem, reach out to an engineer to find a solution.