Date of Award

2017

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

Magnetic Seal Corp. has forged a reputable name for itself in the high performance seal industry. Despite great manufacturing practices and product quality, they strive to be even better. Their focus on product quality and cost efficiency lead them to the realization that understanding and fully characterizing porosity in their products was crucial. Due to the nature of the casting process, their magnetic housings inherently have some porosity. Despite thorough inspections upon receiving parts form vendors, porosity can, and often does appear below the surface after parts are machined. As such, a thorough understanding of how porosity effects leakage rates in their parts became essential in order to keep uphold the quality of manufactured parts and more accurately quantify their performance with respect to the standard.

The Leakseekers were tasked with designing, manufacturing, and implementing a test rig capable of two things, namely isolating leakage to just the O-Ring - Seal interface, and accurately measuring any leakage past this interface. The information provided by the rig would effectively allow Magseal to more precisely determine the allowable limits of porosity on surfaces of interest, and in so-doing limit the amount of parts discarded due to a broad spectrum that determines whether a part fails inspection or not.

Through the use of Financial Analysis, Engineering Analysis and tools like QDF, the team developed a modular design that, with the use of different adapters for different seals, could test a wide range of Magseal products. For optimal utility, the rig was designed with the capability of running 100 hour tests and adapting to multiple seal sizes. Heat, insulation, and pressure sub-systems were also used to ensure that the desired test parameters remained constant throughout the course of a test. An Arduino breadboard was programmed to control and regulate temperatures while an analog pressure system was employed to ensure the desired pressure. In addition to the rig, test and operation procedures, a maintenance manual, electrical system wiring diagrams, a pressure system diagram, and all final assembly CAD part and drawing files were given to the sponsor as deliverables.

Comments

Sponsor: Magseal

Company Sponsors: Brian Dorchik, Sean Pothier

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