V-Packing Seals & Chevron Packing Sets

V-packing seals—also called V-ring packings, chevron seals or vee packings—are multi-piece sealing sets used in high-pressure reciprocating applications. Each set consists of a male adapter, a female adapter and multiple V-shaped intermediate rings stacked between them. When the gland nut is tightened, the adapters compress the V-rings radially against the rod or plunger and axially against the gland walls. This design allows the packing to self-adjust as wear occurs: simply tightening the gland nut restores sealing force without replacing the set. The V-packing geometry is particularly well suited to applications with frequent pressure spikes, abrasive media, large clearances or difficult alignment. Unlike single-piece U-cups, a V-packing set distributes pressure across multiple sealing surfaces and can tolerate some rod misalignment and surface roughness. Common applications include hydraulic presses, injection molding machines, plunger pumps, well servicing pumps, steel mill cylinders and large marine rams. V-packings are manufactured from homogeneous rubber or fabric-reinforced rubber. Homogeneous NBR or FKM V-rings provide good sealing in general oil service. Fabric-reinforced V-rings use cotton, polyester or aramid fabric embedded in NBR or FKM to resist extrusion, abrasion and high pressure. The fabric reinforcement also improves dimensional stability and heat dissipation in heavy-duty service. Our V-packing range includes standard and custom sets for rods and plungers from 10 mm to over 1000 mm diameter. We help customers select the number of V-rings, adapter geometry, material compound and gland dimensions based on pressure, stroke length, speed and media. Installation direction matters: the open side of the V faces the pressure so that system pressure energizes the seal.