Application-Specific Seal Design

When your current seal isn’t up to the task, or when you are faced with a sealing problem, American High Performance Seals has the resources to develop a new seal to match your exact needs, ensuring that you receive the most durable seal design made with the right material for your application. Our engineers are uniquely qualified to understand your exact needs and will work with you not only to design your seal, but also to help you design the optimum hardware and seal housing for peak performance.

Application-specific seals are available:

  • Diameters: up to 250” (6350mm)
  • Temperature: -450°F (-270°C) to +600°F (+318°C)
  • Pressure: vacuum to 50,000 psi (3450 bar)
  • Low friction and low wear
  • Harsh and corrosive environments
  • High surface speeds and PV-limits

Here are some of the ways we assist our customers:

Proprietary Seal Design Software

With the aid of our sophisticated proprietary seal design software and 3D modeling software, we can design virtually any seal very quickly, thus reducing design and development cost. From design to prototype takes only a few days.

Knowledge of Materials

Selecting the right material for the application is the first and most critical step in designing a custom seal. American High Performance Seals engineers understand advanced sealing materials. We have an ongoing commitment to using the highest grade of materials to give our customers maximum seal durability. We partner with leading-edge raw material developers to make new and advanced materials available to our customers in the seals we make for them.

Our application-specific seals are available in a wide range of sizes and materials. Our materials include: Polyurethane; Nitrile; Viton®; H-Nbr; water-resistant (hydrolysis resistant) Polyurethane; high-performance Polyurethane; Silicone; FDA materials; Aflas®; Kalrez®; EPDM; Hytrel®; high- and low-temperature materials; low friction materials; UMWPE; PCTFE; Peek and a range of proprietary filled PTFE. Many specialized Duralast™ and Permachem™ elastomers, as well as Duraloy™ engineering plastics, were developed to match real-world applications; and, on many occasions, we have developed a special grade to solve a customer’s current application difficulty.

Expertise

The engineers of American High Performance Seals have a lifetime of experience in designing and manufacturing seals, gained on five continents over the past 35 years. With vast practical and theoretical experience, our engineers are uniquely qualified to understand your exact needs, ensuring you get the right seal in the right material.

Manufacturing

Our manufacturing process means that seals can be produced in a wide range of material and size options. Even nonstandard material and size options are generally available with a 1-4 day turnaround without tooling cost.

Applications

American High Performance Seals’ custom-engineered seals are currently in successful service in the following industries: underwater vehicles; food dispensing equipment; oilfield exploration and production; steel mill equipment; drilling equipment; paint and solvent manufacturing and application; construction equipment; military and defense; chemical pumps and valves; liquid handling swivel joints; space exploration; pharmaceutical production; aerosols; adhesive dispensing systems; liquid gas control systems; high-pressure hydraulics; cryogenic liquid control components; racing engines; and domestic heating, among others.

 

Success Stories: 

Heavy Equipment Optical Inspection Device

A heavy equipment optical inspection device was designed to rotate the part past optical sensors that map the part versus manufacturing file. It required a seal with the lowest consistent friction through the range.

American High Performance Seals designed a solution that was able to exhibit consistent friction over a 90-second ramp up and down of both speed and pressure. We are consistently achieving in excess of 60,000,000 revolutions with this seal design.

Sealant Metering Georotor Pumps

Sealant metering georotor pumps were designed to pump viscous fluids to fully automated dispensing lines.  American High Performance Seals worked with the OEM to develop a seal that could produce an active seal over a wide viscosity range. The seal was highly abrasion-resistant and resisted damage that could occur when fluid solidified during downtime.  The low-friction properties of the seal material and design allowed a strong seal without burning up at full speed and pressure.

Double Face Seal on Safety Valve

A manufacturer who had space restraints needed a face seal that was able to seal on two separate faces at the same time.  However, pressure fluctuations were high, leading to constant movement in both directions.

American High Performance Seals designed a one-piece seal where pressure on one face activated the other, leading to a double-face seal.  The key to this was using one of our proprietary Duralast™ compounds that had both a very low compression set and high elongation.  The seal has been in service for many years, successfully sealing many different control fluids.