Nitrile cup seal robustness in the India Mark II/III hand pump system

Abstract

Analyzing the robustness of the cup seals in the India Mark II/III hand pump system. In this paper, 110 off-the-shelf nitrile cup seals purchased by the authors in Uganda were tested and characterized. Leak and pump performance tests were performed in both static and dynamic settings and the correlations between performance and geometry and material properties of the cup seals were determined. This important baseline evaluation for the seals supports our future work to improve the longevity and robustness of the India Mark II/III hand pump system, with a focus on the cup seals.