Lübeck — Case Study 04 / Canadian OEM Dual Station Oil-Free Seal
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04 Automotive · Canadian OEM

Dual station with oil-free seal and synchronized traceability for Canadian OEM Gear Housing

Oil-free seal Teflon wax MECCO laser marking Synchronized traceability

Canadian OEM manufactures two parts that assemble together: Gear Housing LEFT and MIDDLE. The original design — developed in Austria by the engineers who designed the product — required applying oil to the seal for it to seal. Dirty process, part contamination, cleaning cost. Lübeck eliminated the oil with a custom formulation.

Client
Canadian OEM
Gear Housing · Active manufacturing
0 oil
Sealing without part contamination
200
Fatigue parts validated without drag or leak
13,500 N
Hydraulic sealing force
0
Serial duplication during power outages
// 01 · Challenge

Two perpendicular parts, one oil-dependent seal that contaminated everything

Canadian OEM manufactures Gear Housing LEFT and Gear Housing MIDDLE that assemble together. Both are tested in independent fixtures; if one fails, both are scrap. Test specification: 10 sccm at 0.3 bar.

The original machine design — developed in Austria by the same engineers who designed the product — required applying oil to the crescent-shaped seal geometry for it to seal. Dirty process, part contamination, recurring post-cleaning cost.

Seal two perpendicular faces simultaneously — bottom face and crescent-shaped opening
Oil required for sealing — part contamination and cleaning cost
If one part fails, both are scrap regardless of the other's result
Class A laser marking cannot duplicate serials — not even during power outages
// 02 · Solution

5 concepts, 1 winner, and a custom-formulated Teflon wax seal

Lübeck evaluated 5 sealing concepts, each with a different trade-off between robustness, cost, and machining difficulty. The winning concept uses a 45° attack angle to close both perpendicular faces in a single motion. Main sealing force: 13,500 N — outside pneumatic range, solved with a hydraulic system. CKD pneumatics for the rest.

1

45° sealing geometry

Bottom plate with o-ring in an inverted trapezoid cavity that reproduces the part geometry, plus crescent-shaped seal. 45° attack angle seals both perpendicular faces in a single motion.

2

Teflon wax seal — custom formulation

Polymer specialist formulated the additive in 2 days. Concentrations from 1% to 3% tested. Validation: 200 fatigue parts without drag or leak. The seal never contaminated the part.

3

MECCO laser marking verified in-line

MECCO head validated before PO: physical sample sent to MECCO USA, parameterized and confirmed by Canadian OEM. Keyence SR-X300 reader validates the Data Matrix after marking.

4

Traceability synchronized to corporate network

Sequential number only advances if both fixtures report PASS. Allen-Bradley Stratix 5200 switch connects to corporate network. Time and date from client server at each startup — zero duplication during power outages.

// 03 · Result

The Austrian engineers adopted the concept

Seal validated on 200 fatigue parts without drag or leak. The Teflon wax eliminated friction between materials without contaminating the process.
Zero serial duplication in laser marking, sustained during power outages and grid failures thanks to time synchronization from the corporate network.
MECCO head validated before PO — physical sample sent to MECCO USA, parameterized and confirmed. No financial or time risk.
Cross-validation: during design release, the Austrian engineers who had spent years with the oil-dependent version acknowledged that Lübeck's concept solved the problem their own machine had never been able to eliminate.

"The Austrian engineers who designed the original product adopted the Teflon wax seal approach — cross-validation from the team that originally designed the product."

— Portfolio documentation, case 04
// Does your sealing process contaminate or lack repeatability?

We design the solution.
We validate before building.

If your sealing process depends on oil, grease, or the operator's hand, there's a clean, repeatable alternative. Talk to an engineer.