Eclipse goes to Mars

admin • June 30, 2010
Eclipse goes to Mars

When Spirit and Opportunity descended to the Martian surface, seals from Eclipse Engineering were on board. One set of seals protects the asmith drive assembly from the very fine dust particulate found on the Martian surface. These seals allow the camera mast to rotate 360 degrees.

A second set of seals is located on the pivot point just below the camera to allow the camera to pivot up and down on the horizon. These seals also protect the drive mechanism from the Martian dust.

In the image above, one set of seals is located below a hexagonal box which contains the asmith drive assembly. The second set is located just below the twin camera mount.

Compare canted coil, cantilever, and helical springs to find the right energizer for your PTFE seal.
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Aside from ball valve seats or non-contact labyrinth seals, PTFE is rarely used without a secondary energizer. This is due to PTFE’s inelastic nature. Unlike urethanes or elastomers which possess an inherent springiness, PTFE is often considered an “unalive” material. Much like a lump of clay, it will not bounce back once deformed. Especially in dynamic applications, this is not a desirable quality. Fortunately, with the addition of a spring or elastomer energizer, all of PTFE’s excellent attributes can be fully exploited in terms of sealing. Much like the rest of the seal industry, Eclipse utilizes three metallic spring energizer types for the seals we manufacture. Canted Coil, Cantilever V-Spring, and Helical. While each spring type ultimately accomplishes the same task, energizing a PTFE or polymer seal jacket, we’ll see that each type has unique properties better suited to certain applications.  Figure 1 below shows generalized load versus deflection curves for the three spring types. As you can see, each one is quite a bit different, favoring distinct circumstances and applications. Though, we’ll also find out load curves are not only deciding factor when choosing a spring.
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