Seals and sealing technology are essential parts of the SKF capabilities.

SKF seals stand for excellence and leadership, and symbolise the company's consistent endeavours to achieve total quality in all processes.

Worldwide application know-how, optimised materials, forward-looking designs and the most advanced production techniques, allow the SKF range of seals to offer customers complete reliability. SKF is a global leader in the Sealing Solutions field and can supply solutions for customers to reach their targets for increasing operating time, reducing downtime, and improving output and product quality.

The question of how bearings and bearing arrangements should be sealed, is currently receiving increased attention, as is the question of sealing in general and SKF continue to find the answers by expanding their seals range to the benefit of all applications. One example of a product that will meet the requirements for applications especially in harsh operating environments, is the metal case design HDL and HDLA seal series, available from SKF.

"SKF's premium class heavy-duty seals in the HDL design are intended for highly demanding sealing arrangements that have to withstand severe operating conditions, including high speeds and temperatures, high deviations in runout, large misalignments and where service life is a key operational parameter" says SKF's Traded Products Manager, Andre Weyers.

"The excellent high-speed performance characteristics of the HDL makes it the preferred design for the severe environment encountered in the rolls of metal and papermaking machines but it is certainly not limited to these applications" continues Weyers.

SKF HDL seals incorporate a stainless steel garter spring that is entrapped by individual finger springs around the entire circumference of the sealing lip. This spring combination enables the seal to perform efficiently with a minimum of friction and wear for longer service life. The HDL series also comprises type HDLA with a secondary dust lip for extra protection against contaminations.

The HDL seal designs are available with sealing lips manufactured from various materials including Nitrile rubber, SKF's Duratemp® (Hydrogenated Nitrile HNBR) and LonglifeTM (Viton), ensuring that the HDL seal performs exceptionally well at all times within the recommended specifications.