Many seal manufacturers, especially the older companies, began by manufacturing compression packing.
The A. W. Chesterton Company has its roots in the Boston, Massachusetts shipping industry of 1884 (Azibert, 1999). Also in 1884 the Feodor Burgmann Dichtungswerke started to produce packings in Germany. Both Crane Packing Company and Durametallic Company were founded in 1917 (CraNews, 1997; Miller, 1992). F. E. Payne established the Crane Packing Company in Chicago and then Crane Packing Ltd. in Slough, England in 1923. Durametallic was founded by C. C. Hall in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Packing was the principal product of all these companies; Crane and Durametallic specialized in metallic packing, Burgmann in braided compressing packings.
The manufacturers summarized below are usually considered to be the “major” manufacturers but there are a number of other seal manufacturers. In addition, there are many local privately owned repair shops who often also attempt to reproduce seals from the major manufacturers. In addition, cheap reproductions are sometimes available.
A. W. Chesterton Company
Chesterton & Company was founded by A. W. Chesterton on the Boston waterfront in 1884. Chesterton focused on steam ship supplies. Today, Chesterton has five business units: Advanced Reinforced Composites, Mechanical Packing, Hydraulic Seals, Mechanical Seals and Technical Products. For a time, Chesterton also had their own line of centrifugal pumps (System One).
In the early 1970’s, Chesterton created quite a stir as it promoted seal technology and its products in seminars around the United States. These three day seminars did much to get Chesterton off to a good start in the seal business.
Chesterton is known for providing innovative products. Some of these award winning products include: Super-Graphite Packing, the 770 Mechanical Seal, the 880 Mechanical Seal, the 241 off-the-shelf Cartridge Mounted Double Mechanical Seal. The company also introduced the SuperCup® Hydraulic Seal and the Self Aligning Stationary™ for mechanical seals.
For more information see http://www.chesterton.com
Byron Jackson / Borg-Warner / BWIP
Byron Jackson seal division was originally part of the Byron Jackson Company of Woodland, California, founded in 1872. It was acquired by Borg-Warner in 1956. In 1987 BW/IP was formed by a management buy-out of Borg-Warner’s Industrial Products subsidiary. In 1997, BW/IP and Durco merged to form Flowserve.
Durametallic
The Durametallic Corporation, now part of Flowserve, Inc., evolved from the New Era Manufacturing Company which was founded by Henry P. White in 1900 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. By 1917, New Era was struggling to survive when Charles C. Hall became an investor and incorporated the business. The main asset of New Era was Patent #1,011,347 dated 9/1/11 issued to Henry P. White for his metallic foil packing. In early 1919, White resigned from the company and sold his stock. In 1921, New Era Manufacturing Company changed its name to New Era Metal Products Company. The New Era metallic packing was called Durametallic packing and in 1923, the company held a contest to rename again. Durametallic Corporation was selected.
In 1934, C. C. Hall discovered that some of his Durametallic packing had been replaced by mechanical seals at the Standard Oil Refinery at Whiting, Indiana. These seals were made by A. R. Tuck and J. H. Hohler in Hammond. Hall reacted by immediately locating Tuck and Hohler and signing them to an exclusive agreement with Durametallic. Within 12 years, mechanical seals had become the primary product of Durametallic Corporation.
Chris E. Wiessner was a key developer of those early Durametallic seals. He not only evaluated each application but sketched the parts and then made them to order. It was not unusual for him to drive to the customer location and install the seal. As a result of this hands on experience, he made many improvements in the designs.
Durametallic closed its packing plant on December 31, 1986.
1995, Durametallic acquired Pacseal and then was bought by Duriron.
1996, Durco and BW/IP merged to form Flowserve Corp.
Durametallic is now part of Flowserve.
For more information, see:
Miller, Arthur H., People, Products, and Progress: The Durametallic Story, Allegan Forest, Mich.: Priscilla Press, 1992, 251 p.
Flexibox
Flexibox Ltd, now part of John Crane Inc., was founded in 1945 by F. B. Porges and Manchester Oil Refinery to manufacture and sell mechanical seals.
Mr. Porges had been actively interested in the development of mechanical seals for some time. In 1942, at the Manchester Oil Refinery in England, a mechanical seal was designed by Porges who was chief engineer of the solvent refining and dewaxing plants. This seal was to solve sealing problems in a liquid sulphur dioxide pump. His design used a formed bellows and included oil injection between the rubbing faces; the sealing oil was contained with conventional compression packing.
Flowserve
Flowserve Corporation was formed in July 1997 through the merger of Durco International (previously Duriron) and BW/IP, Inc. (previously Borg-Warner), Flowserve operates as three divisions: Rotating Equipment Division, the Flow Control Division, and the Fluid Sealing Division. Flowserve also has their Service and Repair Division, which focuses on maintaining flow management equipment.
Flowserve pursued the service end of the market in other ways in 1998 as well. Early in the year, the company consolidated its two most service-oriented divisions–ServiceRepair and Fluid Sealing–into a new division called Flow Solutions. This new unit was to be the centerpiece of Flowserve’s drive to capture a greater share of the service market.
For more information see: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/flowserve-corporation-history/
John Crane
John Crane Mechanical Seals, part of the Smiths Group of the United Kingdom, is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. John Crane is the largest and one of the oldest seal companies being incorporated as Crane Packing Company on March 9, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois.
Frank E. Payne, founder of Crane Packing Company, was a salesman for the Warren Steam Pump Company when he first heard about a local mechanic, John Crane, who made his own variation of metallic packing for pumps. Legend is that Crane discovered the improvement by wrapping his metal foil cigar wrapper around conventional packing. For a while, Payne sold metallic packing for John Crane on a commission basis but he left Warren Pump in 1916 to go into partnership with Crane. Although John Crane soon sold his shares and left the company, Payne kept the name Crane Packing Company for the business.
The first products of Crane Packing Company were flexible gland packings – particularly metallic packings. This packing was used extensively on tubes in steam condensers and heat exchangers as well as rotating and reciprocating pumps. In the 1920’s the product line was expanded to include braided packing as well as gasket materials.
In 1919, Crane Packing moved from the original location, 31 South Clinton Street, to 1800 Cuyler where it remained until 1956. The current location, 6400 West Oakton, in Morton Grove, was acquired in 1950 and by 1956 all Crane Packing operations had been moved to Morton Grove.
In 1923, Frank Payne toured Europe and established Crane Packing Ltd. in Slough, England.
In 1936, Crane Packing Company sold its interest in the English company, Crane Packing Ltd., to the local management; however, Crane Packing Company in the USA and Crane Packing Ltd in England continued to work together technically and commercially.
In the mid 1930’s Crane Packing Company licensed a mechanical seal design from Chicago Rotary Seal. Through several Crane patents, this design evolved into the full convolution rubber bellows seal. By 1938, Crane Packing Ltd in England was making their own mechanical seals for pumps in oil refineries.
In the late 1930’s, probably about 1937, mechanical seals began to replace packing on automobile water pumps. At first only the more expensive automobiles used mechanical seals in the water pump. The famous Jeep of WWII used a Crane rubber bellows seal in the water pump. After WWII, all automobile water pumps used mechanical seals.
During the mid 1940s, mechanical seals began to replace gland packing. Crane Packing Company developed its Type 1 and Type 2 rubber bellows mechanical seals in 1946. Because special lapping machines are required to manufacture mechanical seals, Crane Packing Company founded the Lapmaster Division.
In 1944, an amazing new material called Teflon (TM) was developed by Dupont. This material was relatively inert to many chemicals and held great promise for the sealing industry. To take advantage of the unique properties of Teflon, Crane developed the Type 9 (USA) and Type 109 (Europe) seals. In 1956, an all-PTFE acid-resistant seal, the Type 20, was launched.
In 1947, Crane Packing Ltd. (England) was acquired by Tube Investments of London, England. Tube Investments, later to become TI Group, plc in 1982, was founded in 1919. In 1963, Crane Packing Company (USA) regained a 49% interest in Crane Packing Ltd (England).
During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s a number of the core product lines of Crane Packing Company were developed. In addition to the Type 1 and Type 2 rubber bellows seals and the Type 9 and 109 Teflon wedge seals, the well-known Type 8 family of seals was developed in this time frame. The Type 8 seal is an unbalanced seal for low pressures, the Type 8-B a high pressure seal for pipeline services and the Type 8B-1 is a very adaptable version of the Type 8-B for typical refinery and chemical plant services. Decades later, these seals (with modern materials and improvements, of course) are still among the most popular seals in the world.
In 1951, Crane Packing Company moved from Chicago to Morton Grove, Illinois where today’s industrial complex is located on 26 acres of land.
In 1979, Crane Packing Company developed the Type 28 non-contacting, dry running gas seal to replace conventional oil lubricated seals then used on compressors. A patent was awarded for this unique mechanical seal which used spiral grooves to provide hydrodynamic lift and separate the sealing faces.
In 1981, Crane Packing Company was purchased by Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts in a leveraged buyout as part of Houdaille Industries. The corporate name was changed from Crane Packing Company to John Crane in 1983.
In 1987, TI Group plc purchased Houdaille Industries thus unifying the American and British Crane companies as John Crane International.
In 1998, John Crane acquired Sealol, Safematic and Flexibox.
In 2000, TI Group merged with Smiths Industries to become Smiths Group plc, a global technology company based in London.
Sealol
Sealol was founded in 1939 as the Stevenson Engineering Company. Sealol introduced the first commercial line of bellows seals in 1957 and a double-ply bellows in 1962. Sealol was acquired by EG&G in 1967. In 1998, Sealol was acquired by John Crane Mechanical Seals.