Hello all,
I will appreciate your assistance as it applies to a consistent issue we facing with our centrifuge decanters for solids - liquids separations. Our specific decanters were designed to prevent ingress of contaminants and egress of lubrication (which is in the form of dosing lube oil) within the bearing chambers.
Following production cycles, we carry out Clean - in - place which utilizes caustic acid. We have MTBF of almost every three months, and OEM claims that the caustic foam formations penetrates through the labyrinth and gets within the bearing chambers, thereby causing havoc/damage to the bearings and its housing. They claim that the caustic liquid wont be able to penetrate the labyrinth and find its way to the bearing chamber, but the foam would.
Would appreciate anyone's assistance with experience with labyrinth seals. How would bearing isolator labyrinth seals be susceptible to foam ingress but not fluid (caustic ingress).
I have experience only using labyrinth seals in dusty environments, in such situations, we replenish and fill its cavities with grease to repel any external containments from penetrating and causing damage to the bearings. But in the case of the decanters, the only media that flushes within the labyrinth is water during the CIP phase. And it has a dedicated groove where the water expels from the seal.
Kindly see attachment.
Many thanks,
Dammy
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Oluwadamilola Olatunji
Reliability Engineer
Roquette Canada Limited
Portage la Prairie MB
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