Monthly Archives: January 2020

Uncategorized

Buck Family of Virginia Book

Not exactly related to mechanical seals but I’ve published a genealogy book about my Buck family.  It is available as an ebook on Amazon and will soon be available as a printed book.  See https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0847R7WG8/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

My Buck family is usually referred to as the “Buck Family of Virginia”.  The first member of the Buck family to come to the New World was the Reverend Richard Bucke who sailed from England on June 2, 1609 for Jamestown on the Seaventure. He was the second minister of the Virginia colony and is probably best known for performing the marriage ceremony of John Rolfe and Pocahontas in 1614.

The progenitor of my Buck family of Virginia was Thomas Buck (1618 – 1659) who left Gravesend, England for Virginia on August 21, 1635 onboard the ship George when he was seventeen years old. There is no known relationship between Thomas Buck and the Rev. Richard Bucke but there are several interesting, if perhaps circumstantial, similarities. They were from the same general area in England and settled into the same area in Virginia. It seems highly likely that Thomas would have known the children of Richard Bucke.

In Virginia, Thomas Buck settled into York County, Virginia and appeared to have been prosperous; however, he died at the age of 41.  His will includes an inventory of his household goods which includes, among other things, a Bible and 8000 nails.  There is little information on his children and grandchildren except for his great grandson Charles.

Charles Buck I was born about 1710 in York County and died in 1771 in the Shenandoah Valley. The three sons of Charles Buck I married three daughters of William Richardson and Isabella Calmes in 1774. These three families had thirty-two children. I am a descendant of Charles Buck II through his son William Calmes Buck.

Although the Buck family is not often mentioned in history books, they were a prominent and well-to-do plantation family in early Virginia. They were active in the local economy, politics and religion of the Shenandoah Valley during the 1700’s and 1800’s.  In the 1800s, many family members moved westward, especially into Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.

The Buck family of Virginia also has connections to the Calmes, Ashby, Blakemore, Field, Helm, Neville, Payne, Pierce, Thomas, Bayly, Catlett, Sorrell and Mauzy families of Virginia and Maryland.  Later, a strong connection to the Harrison family was developed in Texas.

All of this information and more is contained in the book.  Most of it is also in my genealogy blog at http://buckfamilyofvirginia.blogspot.com/

API 682, mechanical seal

The Origin of 0.002 Inch

One of my little jokes about pumps and seals is that you only have to know two numbers:  1/8 inch and 0.002 inch.  Well, at least I think it’s funny anyway.  When I was younger and had better vision, I could not understand why certain limits were based on 0.002 inch when 0.001 inch increments could be seen so clearly.  Many years later, I can better understand the 0.002 inch criteria.

It turns out that the 0.002 inch criteria may actually have some basis from lab tests of long ago.  In the early 1950s, the question of seal reliability vs shaft deflection was a hotly debated topic.  The book “People, Products and Progress:  The Durametallic Story” by A. H. Miller relates how Durametallic addressed the question: 

“The Development Committee directed the Research Department to run a series of shaft deflection tests.  After much thought, a regular tester was modified and a shaft which extended 2-1/2 to 3 feet beyond the seal cavity was installed, allowing the shaft to be deflected several thousandths of an inch in any direction.

“… those tests did demonstrate that any amount of shaft deflection which exceeded 0.003 inch at the seal face decreased the effectiveness of the pump and seal.  The pump companies evidently accepted the results of those tests, because as they developed new pump lines, the amount of shaft support provided in them was increased.”

Although no details were given, this anecdote is perhaps the origin of the 0.002 inch maximum allowable deflection at the seal faces and probably made its way into other rules-of-thumb as well.  Just think about all the publications and training programs that emphasize checking runouts and wanting them to be less than 0.002 inch.

API, mechanical seal, SealFAQs, Uncategorized, Wikipedia

Blogs about Mechanical Seals

A blog is a “weblog”, that is, an online journal or informational website.  Posts to a blog appear in reverse chronological order. A blog can be about anything. Many blogs are personal in nature and often are similar to a diary.  The first blogs began to show up about 1994 and were primarily text with a single author.  A blog is expected to be updated more frequently than a website and also to be somewhat less formal.  Blogs usually have a byline or author and the blog site includes the ability to find previous posts by author, date, category and tags.

A blogger is simply someone who operates a blog or blog site as opposed to someone who authors a post for a blog or website.

Blogs can generate money through sponsors and links to commercial sites; however, SealFAQs does not do this.

One problem with hosting a blog is the commitment to maintain it and to add new posts regularly.  Having neglected my own blog for several months, I’m well aware of this problem.  After a while, the newness and uniqueness of the blog sort of wears off and the blogger runs out of things to write about.  Fortunately, I have plans and topics for 2020.

Manufacturers Blogs

There are several different types of blogs.  Some seal OEMs operate a corporate blog to provide information and updates about their products.  Here are some links to OEM “blogs” that are specifically labelled blogs.

John Crane has a blog, https://resources.johncrane.com/blog/, attached to its main website, JohnCrane.com.  The Crane blog addresses a variety of subjects and appears to be somewhat irregularly updated.  The Crane blog appears to be a mix of technical articles, product announcements, news and field experience.  The author(s) name is not given.  The Crane blog began December 13, 2018.

Chesterton has a blog, https://blog.chesterton.com/, attached to its main website, Chesterton.com.  The current topic is part 4 of a series on double seals and barrier fluids; it dates to October 31, 2019.  Although good information, the overall feel is not that of a “blog”.  Apparently several authors contribute.  The Chesterton blog dates back to at least 2017.

Sepco has a blog, “Seal Connect”, at https://www.sepco.com/community/blog/, with posts by various authors dating back to July 23, 2019.

Flowserve does not appear to have a blog, as such. 

EagleBurgmann does not appear to have a blog, as such. 

Non-Manufacturers Blogs

SealFAQs is not a manufacturer sponsored blog.  There are a few other such blogs, but not many.

The Fluid Sealing Association (FSA), the International Trade Association for mechanical seals, has a blog, http://www.fluidsealing.com/mechanical-seals/mechanical-seals-blog/.  The FSA blog doesn’t feel like a conventional blog.  Posts tend to come from the various member companies of the FSA.  Many of the FSA posts were published in Pumps and Systems Magazine as part of the “Sealing Sense” series.  The most recent post was published in June 2019.

There is a relatively new blog at https://www.mechanicalseals.net/Mechanical-Seal-Blog/index.php?frontpage, with the title “Mechanical Seal Tips and Details”.  It has only three posts and has the feel of a project that was undertaken and then stopped.  However, it was off to a good start.

Seal Websites

Of course, there are other websites containing information about mechanical seals and a few use the word “blog” in their description but don’t really have the feel of a blog.

Wikipedia has a page for mechanical seals, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-face_mechanical_seal as well as a page for the seal standard, API 682, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API_Standard_682.

If you are aware of other mechanical seals blogs and especially if you have a favorite mechanical seals blog, please leave a comment.

Uncategorized

SEALFAQS STATISTICS FOR 2019

The SealFAQs site did well in 2019 even though I sort of neglected it the past few months.  SealFAQs is alive and well and I have a number of updates and articles to add.

SealFAQs has been officially launched for two full years.  Here are the statistics for 2019 according to Awstats (Advanced Web Statistics):  SealFAQs had 33,020 unique visitors during 2019 and a total of 49,521 visits (1.5 visits/visitor).  Visitors averaged looking at 3 pages per visit.  Total bandwidth was 26 GB. 

Most days, SealFAQs has about 120 to 150 visitors but it is not unusual to have around 200 visitors. The most visits in a day during 2019 was 305.   As usual, most people visit during the week and the middle part of the day.  There has always been a drop off in visits on the weekends and during a holiday season.

By far, the most visitors to SealFAQs are from the United States and distantly followed by Thailand, India, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, Canada, Great Britain and Germany.

The average time of a visit to SealFAQs is about 4 to 5 minutes in duration but this average is probably because a few people log in for hours.  More than 80% of all visits are for less than 30 seconds. 

Access to SealFAQs via search engines is usually based on key phrases related to piping plans. 

I check SealFAQs for comments every day.  SealFAQs finally has some legitimate comments instead of the bits of spam or faked comments that show up daily. 

I was especially pleased to have added a history of John Crane – the Person during 2019.