FTL Technology, part of IDEX Sealing Solutions, recently installed new rotary and reciprocating test rigs at its Research and Development Center of Excellence in the United Kingdom. 
With few customers having access to their own testing facilities to correctly validate their seals for Driveline and Plunger Pump market applications, FTL partnered with IDEX to invest in equipment to better serve customers and validate the performance of custom-built solutions prior to shipment to customers.
Engineers are now able to simulate working application parameters and demonstrate how sealing designs react under different parameters including speeds, pressures, media, surface conditions, temperatures, atmospheric conditions, and more. In addition, the test rigs will enable engineers to perform back-to-back testing across different duty cycles, giving engineers a clearer view of how their seals will perform in the real world – rather than under strict lab-based parameters.
The test rigs are also autonomous. Once seal parameters have been set, the rigs can run without direct human supervision and log performance criteria.
“We are looking forward to sharing the benefits of our new test rig with our customers and IDEX team members worldwide,” said Mark McCormack, Engineering Director at FTL Technology. “With more refined solutions and a much more agile timescale for testing and validation, our customers can expect to benefit from significant gains through our testing and validation expertise.”
“But more important, our new test rigs afford our customers the peace of mind that our sealing systems will work reliably the first time.,” McCormack said.
FTL Technology is part of IDEX Sealing Solutions alongside Precision Polymer Engineering (PPE), Novotema, Roplan and SFC Koenig.
