• Satinder Pal Singh
• Dr. Neel Kanth Grover
• Dr. H.S. Bains

Pump mechanical seal failure incidents outnumber any other rotating component of a pump in a typical OG&C Plant. This is also well-known fact that up to 70% of pump maintenance expenditure is responsible for seal repair/maintenance or replacements. This arises the need for accurate selection of mechanical seal for given pump & particular service conditions. As a standard industry practice, Pump Buyer usually follows Pump/Seal Vendor recommendation for final selection of Seal Plan. Although the onus of deciding the seal plan and material selection is fairly & squarely on the Pump/Seal Vendor, however it is recommended that Buyer shall also validate/verify the seal selection during bid evaluation stage himself (based on seal selection guidelines). This will help in avoiding changes in seal plan during detailed engineering (after award) which otherwise led to cost/schedule impact. Before selecting the seal material, type of seal the designer or pump manufacturer either needs to go through exhaustively complete scope of API 682 and their field experience (operational experience of using Seal Type X in Pump Type Y with process parameters Z). This paper will illustrate the selection guidelines based on seal vendor recommendations, feedback from Plant Owner (Plant O&M personals) and in-house lesson learnt. This paper will also discuss the work process diagram for the mechanical seal selection/coordination for OG&C plant along with brief information on various Seal types for Pumps per API 682. There is no doubt that the marginally higher cost for the better-quality seals will probably be recovered during the first year of operation of pumps itself. Although this seal selection guideline is applicable for new installations/Procurement of Pumps, however this may be extended for upgrading seals of Pumps in existing OG&C installations where frequent maintenance is encountered.

Mechanical Seal Seal Flush Plan Selection Guideline Pump/Seal Vendor OG&C Plant Work Process Diagram Plant Owner API 682

"“LEARNINGS & SELECTION GUIDELINES OF MECHANICAL SEAL FLUSH PLAN FOR PUMPS IN A TYPICAL PLANT”", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.498-505, June-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907T42.pdf

"“LEARNINGS & SELECTION GUIDELINES OF MECHANICAL SEAL FLUSH PLAN FOR PUMPS IN A TYPICAL PLANT”", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp498-505, June-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907T42.pdf