D uring the week of writing this contribution I have been busy running one of our courses on sealing. If the indications from the course are relevant, there are perhaps some good reasons for some optimism for the sealing business.
The course itself was overbooked -the first time that this has happened for many years with a course with which I have been involved. And the range of activities of delegates continues to get ever wider. Those of us involved in the industry are well aware that sealing is applicable to virtually all aspects of modern life -domestic, leisure, transportation and every aspect of industry.
The increasing demands on equipment and materials mean that suppliers need to have a better understanding of how their product may be used, and what is expected of it.
Many new developments help to create fresh challenges for sealing. The use of modern sensors and computer control can mean that fluid-power systems are asked to operate in new ways, and in very compact and lowpower consumption packages. The high levels of activity to create alternative power sources, or make current engines and power sources more efficient, often have sealing technology as one of the critical path items. This is certainly true of fuel cells, but also areas such as the use of hydrogen as a fuel and many of the methods being investigated to improve internal combustion engine efficiency.
In the power industry, supercritical boilers work at very high pressures and temperatures and with the resurgence of interest in nuclear power, sealing of major components will, no doubt, again be the subject of review. It is encouraging to see engineers and materials specialists, from companies involved in developing new products, working together across the supply chain.
However, at the other extreme, it is quite depressing that some companies are unable to manufacture relatively straight forward products reliably with, it seems, a complete disregard for normal standards of equipment design and manufacture.
This last week I heard of an instance where ten new vehicles, fitted with third-party, hydraulically operated systems, were delivered to a customer. Six had hydraulic system leaks before they had even been used. When the hydraulics industry is trying to present a modern efficient image this is not what it or the seal suppliers need.