PEEK Valve Seat Used in Coal Mining Shield Support Valve

Polyether-ether-ketone or PEEK is one of the high-performance polymer materials with high mechanical strength, good impact strength, excellent chemical resistance, and outstanding dimensional stability. For today’s application, all these fantastic properties mentioned before are essential.

The equipment’s working conditions are always under temperature and high pressure in the coal mining industry. Usually, the pressure is 30~50Mpa and along with a very high load. Especially for the valve seat, which primary function is to seal. PEEK plastic is a polymer; the toughness is more elevated and may cause slight deformation when the valve closes, guaranteeing better sealing. Moreover, the working environment underground must be dirty, and the high toughness of the plastic is insensitive to oil, dust, and fragments. Those are critical factors that PEEK plastic is chosen.

The most used form is the PEEK rod we have a wide range of PEEK rod sizes to make sure meets every condition.

Another very common seal application is the PEEK backup ring which can be seen in the oil&gas industry.

POM valve seat

Another commonly used material in this application is POM-C plastic, always known as Acetal. It is a widely used engineering plastic, and the material shows relatively good mechanical strength, good impact strength, and good machinability. Also, the price of POM-C is lower than PEEK. Please check the Acetal datasheet.

PEEK carbon fiber-filled plastic 

In our practical experience, some cases showed that the PEEK virgin valve seat might occur deformity or crack. This situation happened in some coal mines with complex geological structures. At the very beginning of mining, the instant heavy load may act on the valve seat to make it a deformity. So to solve this problem, we recommend using PEEK CF30, which the carbon fiber-filled will enhance mechanical strength and improve the stiffness of the material.