DOE Touts Diamond Film for Mechanical Seals

A "Type A05 UNCD Seal" that includes a UNCD mating ring on the left side with its matching uncoated SiC rotary primary on the right. Credit: Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.

A development project sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Program (ITP, www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/about/) resulted in a new Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD®) solution for use in rotating pump and gas seal applications. According to ITP, UNCD offers a unique diamond thin-film microstructure that provides superior low-friction, corrosion- and wear-resistance when used in mechanical seal environments. The technology, which won a Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation award in 2006, is now being commercially applied on industrial rotating pump and gas seal applications by Advanced Diamond Technologies (www.thindiamond.com), the exclusive licensee to the UNCD technology. The ITP-sponsored project was developed in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory (www.anl.gov). ITP says UNCD can help optimize energy efficiency by reducing pump shaft frictional torque by as much as 75 percent.

For more information, contact Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. at 815 293-0900. To read an article on the technology that was recently published in MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY magazine, click here.