Automotive & EV

3D printing has developed significantly and now performs a crucial role in many applications. 3D printed products vary from fully functional to purely aesthetic applications; with the most common application being for manufacturing. Here we discuss how our engineers use 3D printing to demonstrate a seal concept.

The electric vehicle industry is growing; global manufacturing and registrations of electric vehicles is increasing exponentially each year. Our engineers have extensive experience in designing seals for automotive applications, but we still find new challenges involved in sealing components within hybrid, hydrogen fuel and full battery powered electric vehicles.

An existing customer (an automotive manufacturer) approached our engineers with an application where they were experiencing failures of a seal designed and manufactured by another rubber seal provider.

All seals require some form of installation into application hardware and often this may seem to be a simple push in place function. However, without consideration of certain conditions this can potentially create sealing problems further into the life cycle of the seal.

Once installation is achieved a seal can often sit in the housing hardware for many months…which potentially allows it to stick to the housing material and cause further issues. This is where special coatings can make a difference.

Supply Plus Ltd designs, manufactures, supplies and distributes safety and fuel delivery equipment, with brands including AS Fire & Safety, Bayley and Collins Youldon.

Propelled by one or more electric motors and using energy stored in rechargeable batteries, electric vehicles are quieter, have zero exhaust emissions and lower emissions in general compared to internal combustion engines. The number of electric vehicles on the road grows exponentially every year globally, and our engineers support manufacturers with innovative sealing solutions in these specialist areas of application.

Our customer manufactures high performance oil and vacuum pump solutions, and approached our engineers with a new O-ring application for review.

The use of metal seals as an engineered sealing solution is appropriate where it is not possible to use elastomeric or polymer seals due to extremely demanding application requirements. For example, these could include applications with extremely high temperatures (300°C upwards) and pressures, intense radiation, cryogenic conditions or highly aggressive chemicals.

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a thermoplastic polymer that can be used in a variety of sealing applications; it is particularly suitable where the application conditions exceed the parameters of elastomeric seal use, but are not as highly demanding as applications that require the use of metal seals.

Where a seal groove follows an irregular path or profile, a common sealing solution is to design a custom Push-In-Place (PIP) gasket that has the same profile as the centre line of the groove, simply drops into place and is retained by the features of its own design.