Finite Element Analysis provides knowledge to predict how a seal product will perform beneath sure circumstances and may 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 functions.
Why can we use Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?
Our engineers encounter many crucial sealing applications with complicating influences. Envelope measurement, housing limitations, shaft speeds, pressure/temperature rankings and chemical media are all software parameters that we should think about when designing a seal.
In isolation, the impact of these application parameters is fairly simple to predict when designing a sealing solution. However, if you compound numerous these factors (whilst often pushing a few of them to their higher limit when sealing) it is crucial to predict what’s going to happen in real application circumstances. Using FEA as a tool, our engineers can confidently design after which manufacture strong, reliable, and cost-effective engineered sealing options for our customers.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) allows us to understand and quantify the effects of real-world circumstances on a seal part or assembly. It can be utilized to identify potential causes the place sub-optimal sealing performance has been observed and can be used to guide the design of surrounding components; particularly for products such as diaphragms and boots the place contact with adjacent parts may must be averted.
The software program also permits force knowledge to be extracted in order that compressive forces for static seals, and friction forces for dynamic seals may be accurately predicted to help prospects within the last design of their merchandise.
How can we use FEA?
Starting with a 2D or 3D model of the preliminary design concept, we apply the boundary conditions and constraints equipped by a customer; these can include strain, drive, temperatures, and any applied displacements. A appropriate finite component mesh is overlaid onto the seal design. This ensures that the areas of most curiosity return accurate results. We can use larger mesh sizes in areas with less relevance (or decrease ranges of displacement) to minimise the computing time required to unravel the model.
Material properties are then assigned to the seal and hardware parts. Most sealing materials are non-linear; the amount they deflect underneath a rise in force varies relying on how giant that pressure is. This is in contrast to the straight-line relationship for most metals and rigid plastics. This complicates the fabric mannequin and extends the processing time, but we use in-house tensile check facilities to accurately produce the stress-strain materials models for our compounds to make sure the analysis is as representative of real-world efficiency as potential.
What happens with the FEA data?
The analysis itself can take minutes or hours, relying on the complexity of the part and the range of operating conditions being modelled. Behind the scenes in the software program, many tons of of thousands of differential equations are being solved.
The results are analysed by our experienced seal designers to determine areas where the design could be optimised to match the precise requirements of the appliance. Examples of these requirements may embody sealing at very low temperatures, a have to minimise friction levels with a dynamic seal or the seal may have to resist excessive pressures with out extruding; no matter sealing system properties are most essential to the client and the appliance.
Results for the finalised proposal could be presented to the shopper as force/temperature/stress/time dashboards, numerical knowledge and animations displaying how a seal performs throughout the evaluation. This data can be used as validation information within the customer’s system design course of.
An instance of FEA
Faced with very tight packaging constraints, this buyer requested a diaphragm component for a valve utility. By using เกจวัดแรงดันnuovafima , we were in a place to optimise the design; not only of the elastomer diaphragm itself, but in addition to suggest modifications to the hardware components that interfaced with it to increase the obtainable space for the diaphragm. This saved materials stress levels low to take away any risk of fatigue failure of the diaphragm over the life of the valve.
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