John Crane has unveiled the Type 8628VL, a next-generation mechanical seal designed to maintain sealing integrity in multiphase ethane and ethylene pipeline service.
The seal uses spiral-groove, non-contacting faces arranged in a tandem configuration to provide hydrodynamic lift and phase-change resilience even when the process fluid shifts between liquid, vapour and supercritical states.
Initial field installations on the US Gulf Coast report non-contacting performance across all phases, extremely low leakage and no failures in the first three months of operation.
The company highlights benefits including extended mean time between repair (MTBR — reported at up to 48 months), much lower flush-fluid consumption (2–3 GPM versus typical 10–30 GPM) and elimination of complex pressurised barrier-fluid support systems such as API Plan 54 or 53B.
“The Type 8628VL delivers pure non-contacting operation even during rapid phase transitions,” said Mike Eason, chief technology officer at John Crane.
He added that the design reduces maintenance, simplifies sealing support systems and supports customers’ reliability and energy-transition objectives.
John Crane launches Type 8628VL — a non-contacting mechanical seal for ethane pipelines
