Trelleborg opens seal inspection facility

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions has announced that it has opened a dedicated climate-controlled swivel stack seal inspection facility, in Barendrecht, the Netherlands, for the validation of bespoke seals. The facility provides a temperature-controlled environment to avoid fluctuations in the dimensions of the seals caused by temperature changes, with specialist storage racks allowing the seals to be acclimatised prior to inspection. A bespoke inspection table has been installed, on which seals up to 3000 mm can be measured with special lighting to aid visual inspection. Henk-Willem Sanders, Technical Manager Oil & Gas and FPSO Focus Group leader at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, said: ¡°Oilfield operators need to be confident about their equipment ¨C if a seal fails during an operation this can lead to lost production revenues amounting to millions of dollars. The quality of seals for our customers is of the upmost importance and we are continually striving for excellence, which is why we have launched this dedicated seal inspection and validation facility. Typical FPSO seals are from 100 mm up to 3000 mm in large cross sections. The controlled environment in combination with the fact that large diameter seals can be inspected, gives our customers unrivalled reassurance when selecting a seal partner.¡±