Huhnseal AB is a Swedish company that develops and manufactures mechanical seals for the modern process industry.
Interview with Luca Tamburelli, Sales Director at Huhnseal AB.
Easy Engineering: A brief description of the company and its activities.
Luca Tamburelli: Gustav Huhn created his company in Germany back in 1903, to manufacture ground-breaking packings for steam locomotive pistons. In the course of three generations, during which the company was relocated to Sweden, Gustav Huhn AB was a market leader in the mechanical seal industry, especially in the shaft seal and water turbine markets.
In 1983 Huhnseal AB was created, as a private company that grew steadily by successfully combining experience and innovation.
Huhnseal AB became a member of the Meccanotecnica Umbra Group, a world leader in Automotive and White Goods mechanical sealing systems, in 2008.
Huhnseal AB today is a Swedish company that develops and manufactures mechanical seals for the modern process industry. At the site in Landskrona, sealing solutions are designed, tested and manufactured for the global market.
E.E: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
L.T: Huhnseal is a leading company specialized in mechanical seals of the highest quality for a wide range of industries and applications.
The company is committed to the research of best materials to always improve industrial mechanical seals characteristics and offer high performance in each sector.
Huhnseal is specialized in custom mechanical seals that work in different types of industrial applications all over the world. A team of specialists work to design custom solutions for pumps and rotating equipment in general, in order to fully satisfy each customer.
Our customers are found in a wide range of businesses such as pulp & paper, food & beverage, pharmaceutical, mining, refrigeration, general process and in the offshore industry. Huhnseal AB has a long tradition and experience of manufacturing customer specific solutions for the OEM market.
E.E: What’s the news about new products/services?
L.T: Huhnseal customized mechanical seals are typically sold with an exclusivity on the aftermarket to the OEM clients; we typically personalize the logo with private branding on products, labels, boxes and documentation.
Huhnseal mechanical seals offer a wide range of advantages such as:
- extended lifetime;
- great reliability;
- water and power saving;
- excellent cooling.
E.E: What are the ranges of products/services?
L.T: Our products are seals for rotating shafts; we supply from the component arrangements to the semi-cartridges and cartridges for direct fit onto the machinery.
Our applications cover the widest ranges of pressures, temperature and speeds, from low to high viscosity and from the pure liquids to gases and multiphase media, often with a remarkable presence of abrasive solids.
E.E: What is the state of the market where you are currently active?
L.T: Our market is in general in a growing trend, with the several segments requiring diverse performances.
The Sanitary Industry is keeping a steady growth, with increasing requirements of hygiene in the part design. This demand is spreading across the world and the Huhnseal expertise is more and more considered and appreciated by the business partners.
Other segments rely more on contingencies that are related to the industrial trends, like Mining, paper industry, Oil & Gas that are also dependent on the cost and extraction rates of the crude oil, or the raw material trends in the stock exchange, international restrictions or recommendations on the technologies, or even geopolitical needs as far as the defense industry is concerned, for example.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
L.T: It is always very challenging to predict market trends in medium terms, within a fast-evolving international scenario like the one we are living in.
As said, the Food & Beverage and Pharmaceutical segments remain the one with the steadiest positive trend. Huhnseal has a very strong presence here.
E.E: What are the most innovative products/services marketed?
L.T: Innovation in mechanical seals is apparent in their features, design and materials.
Our product special features are:
A. Diamond Coating is an extremely hard surface, it has a very low coefficient of friction and excellent thermal conductivity. There are four purposes for use of Diamond Coating on mechanical seal faces.
- Dry Running/Poor lubrication: conventional face materials can be damaged in seconds when ran dry. Because of the low coefficient of friction, Diamond Coated faces will tolerate poor lubrication and/or dry running (performance dependent upon P/V).
- Abrasive Applications: often a double seal or a single seal with flush is used in abrasive applications. They both require a flush and there are times when flush is not available or product contamination is not permitted. The Diamond Coating permits users to apply better performing seals in abrasive applications.
- High Pressure: In extreme high-pressure applications Diamond Coating can help offset the negative effects of high closing force on the mating faces due to its low coefficient of friction and thermal conductivity.
- Electrolytic Corrosion: this phenomenon can happen when ultra-pure water is being pumped at high shaft speeds. An electric charge arcs between the two seal faces causing pitting on the wear surfaces and eventually seal failure. Diamond Coating stands up well to this type of corrosion.
B. Lip-O-Ring®
Patented hygienic elastomer profile that satisfies the highest cleanability demands on the seal.
The special geometry of the Lip-O-Ring prevents material/product deposits in the (O-Ring) groove, facilitating the best possible Cleaning In Place (CIP) operation regarding the seal. This technology eliminates several crevasses (tough to clean areas using CIP) that exist with conventional sealing methods (gaskets and O-Rings).
C. Knife-Edge
The Knife-Edge feature is a special face geometry that allows the seal faces, that are in product contact, to better perform in higher viscosity products. These seal faces are designed to handle very sticky or crystallizing fluids (high sugar content) as well as difficult to seal polymers. An important use of Knife-Edge technology is that, in specific situations, it will allow the use of a single seal where a double seal may have been used in the past.
E.E: What estimations do you have for the beginning of 2024?
L.T: Huhnseal has had growth for several years in a row, despite of the recent general instabilities of the market and all the disruptions within the supply chains of component and raw materials.
2024 appears to be featured by a general stability in the material availability.
