Air Seal Cleans up Gypsum Leakage

A drywall facility had a problem with gypsum leakage from a screw conveyor. Gypsum, a soft mineral used in fertilizer, drywall, plaster, and blackboard or sidewalk chalk. Gypsum causes a mess in the facilities that process it.

The Problem

The drywall facility’s screw conveyor used compression packing rings to seal the conveyor’s shaft. Compression packing can be effective in many applications. However, when dry powders are being sealed, the packing is easily contaminated. This causes packing wear, excess product leakage, and shaft wear. The powdered gypsum leakage caused wasted product, compression packing wear, and bearing failures.

The Solution

An air seal eliminated the leakage completely. Air seals use engineered clearances and directional flow paths to create uniform pressure and velocity profiles, generating a pneumatic seal. To accommodate the inherent misalignment that may be present in many applications, a floating throttle inside the seal handles ±0.125 inch of parallel movement. Learn more about it by downloading the case study now!

About the Author

Terry Roberts is the Midwest regional manager for Sealing Equipment Products Company
(SEPCO). He has worked in the fluid sealing industry for 20 years. In his role with SEPCO, he
provides training, sales support and solutions to channel partners and their customers. Roberts
is also on the technical committee of the International Sealing Distribution Association (ISD). He may be reached at terryr@sepco.com.
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