Description of surface topography of sealing rings

A sealing ring is an important component of a mechanical sealing unit, since it influences the tightness of the joint. Investigations were conducted for rings made from five different materials, namely: ceramics Al2O3, carbon impregnated by antimony, sintered silicon carbide, chromium–molybdenum alloy and tungsten carbide. 2D and 3D measurements have been conducted on rings. All measurements have been conducted using ‘Form Talysurf 120’ roughness measuring equipment at ANGA Mechanical Seals Ltd. For all of the rings, the investigations were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of sealing. In each case, the 2D measurements have been carried out in five equally distributed areas of the ring. The statistical analysis refers to parameters of the primary profile, roughness and waviness. The correlation analysis for 2D parameters as well as for 2D vs. 3D parameters was carried out. For each of the ring the research of the effectiveness of the seal was performed. This paper presents the examples of topography graphs, some results of 3D parameters measurements, Spearman rank correlation coefficients for 2D parameters and Spearman rank correlation coefficients among 2D and 3D parameters. The tables containing the correlation coefficients can be used to find the 2D equivalents of 3D parameters during the measurements of sealing rings.