Dripless moldable packing

[oilybilge]

I was reading about shaft seals in Nigel Calder and he's very keen on 'dripless packing', the claylike stuff you roll into a sausage and then put into your stuffing box between two rings of conventional packing. It's supposed to stop dripping completely and doesn't need a greaser. Anyway, I did some googling and there's lots of references to it from about 15 years ago and not a great deal since. It's not for sale in UK except on ebay. Is this an idea that's come and gone? Has anyone tried it?

 

[Tranona]

Not a good idea. The packing needs to be water lubricated hence the slight drip when running. The purpose of the grease in the stern tube is to stop water coming through when the shaft is not turning. Sometimes you can adjust it so that the drip is very slow without running hot, but the only real solution to drip is to replace it with a proper dripless seal either lip seal or face seal