Dry running end face mechanical seal

A dry-running, end-face mechanical seal, comprising:

• a gland plate in surrounding, non-contacting relationship with a rotatable shaft;
• a stator seal face fixed to said gland plate in surrounding, non-contacting relationship with the rotatable shaft, a rear surface of the stator seal face being in direct, parallel contact with a seal-contacting surface of the gland plate, said rear surface of the stator seal face and said seal-contacting surface of the gland plate both being flat to within a tolerance of three microns and smooth to within 20 RMS;
• a rotor mounting structure arranged in a rotationally fixed, axially movable relationship with said rotatable shaft;
• a rotor seal face supported by said rotor mounting structure and positioned such that a front surface of the rotor seal face is in direct parallel contact with said front surface of said stator seal face, thereby forming a dry contacting seal therebetween;
• a cooling channel formed in said gland plate and bounded on at least one side by the rear surface of the stator seal face;
• at least one inlet port configured to allow air to flow from a region proximal to said rotatable shaft into said cooling channel;
• and
• at least one outlet port configured to allow air to escape from said cooling channel.