Method for removing a seal

#The invention relates to a particularly inexpensive and simple method for removing a sealing means which is held in a groove of a component by means of a clamping means.

#Such a sealing means is, for example, a sealing strip, which is fastened to a casing or a rotor of a turbomachine in order to seal the gap (between the shaft of the rotor and a guide vane fastened to the casing or between the casing and a rotor blade of the rotor) against a working medium, which is flowing through the turbomachine and drives the rotor. If, in this arrangement, a respective sealing strip on the casing or the guide vane and a respective sealing strip on the shaft or the rotor blade of the rotor are arranged alternately one behind the other, viewed in the axial direction of the rotor, this is referred to as a so-called labyrinth seal. The working medium no longer penetrates appreciably through this labyrinth of seals so that the power of the turbomachine is only slightly impaired by this loss of working medium.

#For simplicity in what follows, reference is made to the casing of the turbomachine when the casing as such or a guide vane firmly connected to the casing is under discussion and reference is made to the rotor when the rotor as such or a rotor blade firmly connected to the rotor is under discussion.

#An exemplary embodiment of the invention is explained in more detail using a drawing which includes three figures. In these:

#FIG. 1 shows, in a perspective representation, a part of a steam turbine casing, a sequence of sealing strips being inserted into the casing;

#FIG. 2 shows, in a perspective representation, an enlarged excerpt from FIG. 1 to elucidate the fastening of the sealing strip in the casing, and

#FIG. 1 shows, in a perspective representation, a part of a gray cast iron casing 2 of a steam turbine. The part shown is the half of a hollow cylinder, within which the rotor (not shown) of the steam turbine rotates. In order to seal the gap between the casing 2 and the rotor, a sequence of sealing strips 3, which each protrude into the gap, are inserted one behind the other on the casing 2, viewed in the axial direction of the rotor. In order to simplify the representation, only three of these sealing strips 3 are shown. Sealing strips, which are arranged on the rotor, engage in each case between two adjacent sealing strips 3 of the casing 2. So-called labyrinth sealing of the gap between the rotor and the casing 2 is therefore involved.

#Each sealing strip 3 is fastened in a groove 6 in the casing 2 by a metallic clamping means 4. The clamping means is a calking wire in a highly alloyed steel.

#The fastening of the sealing strip 3 on the casing 2 is clearly visible, in an enlarged representation, in FIG. 2. On its fastening side, the sealing strip 3 has an L-shaped embodiment. The fastening side of the sealing strip 3 is inserted into the groove 6 of the casing 2 and is subsequently firmly pressed in or caulked in mechanically with the clamping means 4. The result is, therefore, an enduring and mechanically stable connection between the sealing strip 3 and the casing 2. The same, of course, also applies mutatis mutandis in the case of the rotor.