Finite Element Analysis offers knowledge to foretell how a seal product will perform beneath certain circumstances and can help identify areas where the design could be improved without having to test multiple prototypes.
Here we clarify how our engineers use FEA to design optimal sealing solutions for our buyer applications.
Why can we use Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?
Our engineers encounter many critical sealing functions with complicating influences. Envelope size, housing limitations, shaft speeds, pressure/temperature rankings and chemical media are all software parameters that we should contemplate when designing a seal.
In isolation, the impact of those application parameters is reasonably straightforward to predict when designing a sealing answer. However, if you compound numerous these factors (whilst usually pushing some of them to their upper limit when sealing) it’s crucial to foretell what will occur in actual application situations. Using FEA as a software, our engineers can confidently design after which manufacture robust, dependable, and cost-effective engineered sealing options for our prospects.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) allows us to grasp and quantify the consequences of real-world circumstances on a seal part or meeting. It can be used to determine potential causes where sub-optimal sealing efficiency has been observed and can be used to information the design of surrounding elements; particularly for products corresponding to diaphragms and boots where contact with adjoining parts may have to be averted.
The software also allows drive information to be extracted in order that compressive forces for static seals, and friction forces for dynamic seals can be accurately predicted to assist customers within the last design of their merchandise.
How will we use FEA?
Starting with a 2D or 3D model of the initial design idea, we apply the boundary situations and constraints equipped by a customer; these can embody stress, pressure, temperatures, and any applied displacements. A appropriate finite factor mesh is overlaid onto the seal design. This ensures that the areas of most curiosity return correct outcomes. We can use larger mesh sizes in areas with much less relevance (or lower levels of displacement) to minimise the computing time required to solve the model.
Material properties are then assigned to the seal and hardware components. Most sealing supplies are non-linear; the quantity they deflect underneath an increase in drive varies depending on how massive that drive is. This is in contrast to the straight-line relationship for many metals and rigid plastics. This complicates the material model and extends the processing time, however we use in-house tensile test amenities to accurately produce the stress-strain material models for our compounds to ensure the analysis is as consultant of real-world efficiency as possible.
What happens with the FEA data?
The analysis itself can take minutes or hours, relying on the complexity of the half and the vary of operating circumstances being modelled. Behind the scenes within the software program, many tons of of hundreds of differential equations are being solved.
The results are analysed by our experienced seal designers to identify areas the place the design can be optimised to match the particular requirements of the appliance. เกจวัดแรงดันปั๊มลมpuma of those requirements may include sealing at very low temperatures, a have to minimise friction ranges with a dynamic seal or the seal might have to withstand high pressures without extruding; no matter sealing system properties are most necessary to the customer and the appliance.
Results for the finalised proposal may be presented to the client as force/temperature/stress/time dashboards, numerical data and animations showing how a seal performs all through the analysis. This information can be utilized as validation knowledge in the customer’s system design process.
An example of FEA
Faced with very tight packaging constraints, this customer requested a diaphragm part for a valve application. By using FEA, we were able to 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 extend the obtainable house for the diaphragm. This saved material stress ranges low to remove any risk of fatigue failure of the diaphragm over the lifetime of the valve.
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