Diagnostic Model of Crankshaft Seals

The paper presents a research stand being a diagnostic model of radial lip seals used, among others, on crankshafts of piston combustion engines in order to identify the correctness of their operation. The possibility of determining the technical condition of lip seals on the basis of the proposed coefficient of correctness of operation has been described. The basic features of seals influencing their correctness of operation were also described, along with examples of determining the durability limits of lip seals. A modified version of the friction node of the T-02 four-ball apparatus is presented. It allows to check the correctness of sealing lips operation as well as to test the compatibility between the steel shaft, sealing lip and sealed lubricating oil. It was shown that the test results con-firmed the usefulness of the hypothesis that the quality of oil affects the durability of sealing lips and their coefficient of correctness. Additionally, attention was paid to the possibility of analyzing the pumping effect affecting the transition of the seal-shaft system from the state of partial suitability S₂ to the state of full suitability S₁ or to the state of unfitness S₃, and because the change in the state of such a system is random, it requires a probabilistic analysis.