Finite Element Analysis offers information to foretell how a seal product will perform under certain circumstances and can help determine areas the place the design may be improved with out having to check a quantity of prototypes.
Here we explain how our engineers use FEA to design optimal sealing options for our buyer purposes.
Why can we use Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?
Our engineers encounter many important sealing applications with complicating influences. Envelope dimension, housing limitations, shaft speeds, pressure/temperature rankings and chemical media are all application parameters that we should contemplate when designing a seal.
In ราคาpressuregauge , the impression of those utility parameters is fairly simple to predict when designing a sealing answer. However, whenever you compound numerous these elements (whilst typically pushing some of them to their upper limit when sealing) it is essential to predict what will occur in actual utility circumstances. Using FEA as a software, our engineers can confidently design and then manufacture robust, dependable, and cost-effective engineered sealing options for our prospects.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) permits us to understand and quantify the effects of real-world conditions on a seal half or assembly. It can be utilized to establish potential causes the place sub-optimal sealing efficiency has been noticed and can also be used to guide the design of surrounding parts; particularly for products similar to diaphragms and boots where contact with adjoining components may must be avoided.
The software additionally allows drive knowledge to be extracted in order that compressive forces for static seals, and friction forces for dynamic seals may be accurately predicted to assist prospects in the last design of their merchandise.
How do we use FEA?
Starting with a 2D or 3D model of the initial design idea, we apply the boundary conditions and constraints provided by a buyer; these can include strain, force, temperatures, and any utilized displacements. A appropriate finite factor mesh is overlaid onto the seal design. This ensures that the areas of most curiosity return accurate outcomes. We can use larger mesh sizes in areas with less relevance (or decrease ranges of displacement) to minimise the computing time required to solve the mannequin.
Material properties are then assigned to the seal and hardware parts. Most sealing materials are non-linear; the amount they deflect underneath an increase in force varies relying on how giant that drive is. This is not like the straight-line relationship for most metals and rigid plastics. This complicates the fabric mannequin and extends the processing time, however we use in-house tensile test facilities to precisely produce the stress-strain material models for our compounds to ensure the evaluation is as consultant of real-world efficiency as attainable.
What occurs with the FEA data?
The analysis itself can take minutes or hours, relying on the complexity of the half and the vary of working conditions being modelled. Behind the scenes within the software program, many lots of of hundreds of differential equations are being solved.
The outcomes are analysed by our experienced seal designers to establish areas the place the design may be optimised to match the particular necessities of the application. Examples of those necessities may embrace sealing at very low temperatures, a have to minimise friction ranges with a dynamic seal or the seal might have to face up to high pressures without extruding; no matter sealing system properties are most essential to the customer and the applying.
Results for the finalised proposal could be offered to the client as force/temperature/stress/time dashboards, numerical data and animations showing how a seal performs all through the evaluation. This data can be used as validation data within the customer’s system design process.
An instance of FEA
Faced with very tight packaging constraints, this buyer requested a diaphragm component for a valve utility. By utilizing FEA, we have been capable of optimise the design; not only of the elastomer diaphragm itself, but in addition to propose modifications to the hardware elements that interfaced with it to increase the obtainable space for the diaphragm. This saved materials stress ranges low to take away any possibility of fatigue failure of the diaphragm over the life of the valve.
Share