Very high speed rotating seals (for racing industry)

The engine block is characterized by two or more shafts connected together through the distribution system. The shafts can rotate at different speeds and in racing engines can even exceed 15000 RPM.

Challenge

One of our customers, active in the racing industry, asked us to find a sealing solution able to withstand high temperatures generated by high speed and to withstand the vibrations of these engines stressed for long periods at maximum speeds. The solution used till that moment was a moulded oil seal ring.

Solution

Firstly, the ATP technical team analyzed the application’s operating conditions

• Medium: engine oil
• Movement: rotary
• Shaft: ø25 mm
• Rotary Speed: over 15,000 RPM
• Theoretical pressure: 0 ÷ 0.2 bar
• Theoretical temperature: 160 C

The oil seals, even the one deigned high speeds in FPM, over 10000RPM (for a diameter of 25mm), cannot be used in these applications for so long periods, due to rubber’s thermal drift caused by hard friction conditions. Using our test room and specially thanks to the use of our tribometer, we have tested some samples of ATP’S special PTFE compound and identified the most suitable material, our SINTEK 309, INOX and ALUMINUM, characterized by high thermal resistance and a low coefficient of friction.

Lately we designed a profile and submitted it to F.E.M. analysis and finally made a sample to test at the speeds requested by the customer in our test room.

Testimony

Since the very beginning the client was satisfied with our work method specially for the part concerning data’s sharing. After comparing our solution to the standard ones and to other market proposals, the customer noticed good sealing efficiency and performance improvements