Shaft Surface Roughness and its Influence on the Wear of the Lip Sealing Edge

Abstract

A paper presents first stage of the research on the role of the shaft surface roughness in lubrication and wear of the oil lip seals. Surface roughness of the shafts was characterized by means of the selected roughness parameters. Short term tests of the oil lip seals revealed that torque as well as the oil lip wear are greatly affected by the ratio of the profile height and average radius of curvature of all shaft irregularities, ordinates distribution across the profile height as well as by mean slope of the profile. It was found that some of the oil lip seals had uneven wear track over lip perimeter. These seals had lower power consumption than those with symmetrical lip wear. The lack of the symmetry in contact conditions over the lip perimeter renders the relation between the shaft surface roughness and the lip wear to be not so distinct.