Frictional study of alumina, 316 stainless steel, phosphor bronze versus carbon as mechanical seals under dry sliding conformal contact

Abstract

This paper presents an investigative study on the frictional characteristics of alumina, 316 stainless steel, and phosphor bronze materials against resin-impregnated carbon in the form of mechanical seals. An experimental setup was designed and fabricated to study the frictional characteristics of the seal for varying normal load and speed. Pairing of stationary seal and rotary seal was done among the three combinations among which alumina versus resin-impregnated carbon exhibited the superior frictional characteristics. Whereas in comparison with 316 stainless steel versus resin-impregnated carbon and phosphor bronze versus resin-impregnated carbon, the latter exhibited the better frictional characteristics. Phosphor bronze pair and 316 stainless steel pair resulted in low and stable friction coefficient in the range of 0.07–0.08 and 0.12–0.13, respectively. This work highlights that the phosphor bronze might be an alternate substitute for the applications involving 316 stainless steel as a seal face material, where the frictional characteristics was a major concern.