Overcoming Seal Failures

At its most basic level, a seal exists to keep something out, or keep something in. That might mean preventing water from leaking out of an appliance, keeping dust and rain from entering a vehicle cab, or blocking smoke from escaping a damper system.

I've worked with customers across many industrial manufacturing industries, and one thing I've learned is that seals are often the last thing people think about, until they stop working. Then they think about them a lot. At that point, what seemed to be a minor component suddenly becomes a major problem.

Of course, most manufacturers are familiar with the direct costs of product failures, including, the warranty claims, recalls, product repairs, field repair calls, replacement parts and the potential liability for damage or injury and so on. 

But there are other costs that are harder to measure.

When a customer experiences a product failure, they become angry at the brand and everything it stands for. If, for example, a dishwasher leaks and warps their expensive hardwood floor, they are not going to take it in stride. They will tell their dishwasher horror story to friends and colleagues and anyone else who will listen. 

Today, dissatisfied customers can amplify a bad experience far beyond their immediate circle. Online reviews, social media posts and industry forums give unhappy users a platform to influence prospective buyers. While manufacturers may never know exactly how many future sales were lost because of a single product failure, the impact on brand perception can be significant and long-lasting.

Why seals fail 

In my experience, seal failures usually come down to one or more of three areas: 

• Material Selection and Expertise: The material may not be fully compatible with the temperature range, chemicals, humidity, UV or other demands of the operating environment. 
• Design & Development: The products' geometry may not fully account for real-world shifting tolerances, movement, compression, or other operating conditions. 
• Manufacturability. A design may appear effective on paper but be challenging to manufacture with precision consistently. 

Any one of these factors could lead to performance issues in the field. 

Real world turnarounds 

Much of our work at Cooper Standard ISG is helping manufacturers who come to us to redesign competitor seals on products that went to market and failed, causing them expense and brand damage. For example, a couple of years ago a customer in the growing data center industry came to us with a new but increasingly common problem. They were trying to cool their massive computer systems in cooling tanks rather than in heavily air-conditioned rooms, immersed in a very specialized proprietary cooling liquid. Several sealing solutions had failed due to chemical incompatibility with the coolant, creating condensation concerns around sensitive equipment. 

Any seal they tried on the tank would disintegrate and fail, causing condensation around the equipment. They tried several sealing suppliers over several years, but no one could solve the problem. We worked with the customer to evaluate material compatibility, and sent them samples to test. They quickly came back and told us that our new custom material successfully resisted the chemical reaction with the coolant. So, we used this material to develop a custom sealing solution and launched a product that is working for them after they suffered years of failed attempts. 

As noted, sometimes, material science is key, indeed, in the data center situation, no seal design could have withstood the environment, it was all in the material. Other times, the solution to avoiding seal failure lies in engineering design expertise. For example, we had a heavy vehicle manufacturer partner that was experiencing leaking door seals on their vehicles, with water and dust entering the cab. Not surprisingly, they were besieged with warranty claims and customer complaints. Cooper Standard ISG analyzed the real-world needs of the application, redesigned the sealing system, and implemented a new seal design that was rushed to the field. The company reported complaints largely disappeared after that. 

Often, in these challenges, we will bring to bear our Finite Element Analysis capabilities. FEA is a computer-driven virtual modeling tool that helps us analyze seal performance under real world conditions. Long a mainstay of high-volume automotive manufacturing, FEA is a tool that is just beginning to deliver benefits for industrial manufacturing customers. And Cooper Standard ISG is one of the few seal suppliers who bring FEA to bear on solving sealing challenges outside the automotive world. 

Seal failures rarely fix themselves. Identifying the root cause early can reduce warranty costs, protect your brand and improve product performance. If you're facing a sealing challenge, contact Cooper Standard ISG to discuss your application and potential solutions.