Reliant™ Military Grade Bulkhead Seal - Retrofit Model

Developed for the US Navy, available for your vessel.

Through a five year development process, Midé Marine’s Reliant model bulkhead seals have been designed, tested and qualified to strict Naval standards including shock (MIL-S-910D, GRADE A), vibration (MIL-STD-167-1A), 1000 hour simulated life cycle testing, foreign fluids and mis-alignment testing. All Reliant model seals are capable of meeting these strict requirements all while providing for very large shaft deflections. This rigorous testing ensures that our seals will perform in the most demanding of environments.

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Retrofit Design

Midé Marine’s Reliant Retrofit model was designed to implement directly into an existing bulkhead seal housing which is already installed on the ship. This capability allows for a lower procurement cost compared to replacing the entire seal all the while still getting the benefits of Midé’s innovative non-contacting HydroActive™ design.

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Self-activating, non-Contacting HydroActive design

The core technology behind Midé Marine’s innovative bulkhead seals is its hydrogel embedded foam. Developed over the past decade, this foam enables our seal to not contact the rotating shaft during the majority of its life. However, when duty calls and a flooding event is occurring, the hydrogel embedded foam uses the water from the flooding to swell and provide a robust and reliable seal against the shaft, protecting the ship and her sailors. Rigorous testing to Navy standards has shown the ability of the seal to operate up to 1000 hours with the seal engaged after a flooding. By not contacting the shaft the seal has no wearing components. No wear means no maintenance. No maintenance leads to a very low total ownership costs for our customers. Another benefit of being a non-contacting seal is that the mounting requirements (circularity and angularity) can be more lenient compared to other products.

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Split Design

All of Midé’s bulkhead products utilize a split design. A split design allows for our seals to be easily installed onto a ship without having to remove the shaft. This is a critical design feature to ensure our seals are the lowest total ownership cost seals on the market.

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Lightweight

All of Midé’s bulkhead seal products utilize lightweight materials where appropriate. Lightweight materials allow for easier installation, a reduction in installation costs and a lighter and more efficient ship.

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Qualified to Strict Navy Standards

Through a five year development process, Midé Marine’s Reliant model bulkhead seals have been designed, tested and qualified to strict Naval standards including shock (MIL-S-910D, GRADE A), vibration (MIL-STD-167-1A), 1000 hour simulated life cycle testing, foreign fluids and mis-alignment testing. All Reliant model seals are capable of meeting these strict requirements all while providing for very large shaft deflections. This rigorous testing ensures that our seals will perform in the most demanding of environments.

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Reliant Bulkhead Seal Specifications - Retrofit Model

Operating Pressures	up to 30 psi (2 bar)
Shaft Surface Speed	Dry = Unlimited / Flooded = up to 82 ft/s (25 m/s)
Surface Finish Required	63 µ-inch or better (1.6 µ-meter)
Allowable Angular Misalignment	0.5 degrees
Leak Rate	Less than 1 US Pint per minute (473 mL/min)
Shaft Deflections	Up to 50mm, 1.97"
Key Features	Non contacting, non rotating, reusable, lightweight
Approvals	NAVSEA, MIL-S-901D, MIL-STD-167-1A, ABS

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Advantages - Retrofit Model

Applications

The start of it all! Midé Marine’s first seal was designed as a drop in replacement for faulty units found throughout the US Navy fleet, and on countless other vessels world wide.  The Reliant RM is a retrofit insert which can be installed directly into your existing bulkhead seal housing.  Developed to eliminate wear both inside the housing, and on the main shaft sealing surface, the Reliant Series RM is a cost effective alternative to a complete system, but still offers the safety and reliability of a Midé Marine product. Reliant Series RM seals have been designed to fit the following types of US Navy ships, but can be engineered to fit most any ship on the water today:

• DDG
• LPD
• LHD
• LHA
• LSD
• LCS

Other Applications

Midé Marine’s HydroActive™ technology is not limited to propulsion shafting; it can be customized to created watertight integrity for a variety of environments. Hydroactive sealing technology also provides the unique capability of sealing regardless of orientation.

While many seals on the market today are affected by gravity, Midé Marines seals can work vertically, horizontally, or anywhere in between - from sealing pump casings that run between compartments, to riser pipes on oil rigs.

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Savings over time - total ownership costs

Due to it's advanced HydroActive technology, Mide Marine's bulkhead seals may have a slightly higher upfront cost than some of its competitors. However, this cost is quickly negated - in less than two years - as its self-activating, non-contacting design only requires a small amount of maintenance and never needs to have any components replaced.

Competitor costs (figures based on a current customer):
Competitor bulkhead seals require bi-annual replacement of the wearing components, a re-machining of the housing supporting of the wearing components every four years and a complete replacement every six years after the housing has worn beyond the specification - leading to a very high total ownership cost.

Mide Marine's costs:
Mide Marine's total ownership cost plot shows yearly regular maintenance (visual inspection) and a functionality test performed every five years. There are no wearing parts to replace - leading to a very low total ownership cost.

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