Bearing with multiple lip seal
AssigneeThe Torrington Company
InventorsLeo Stella, Cameron Gualco Gardella
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An annular seal is located in the annular space between a housing and a relatively rotatable shaft mounted in the housing. The annular seal includes a plurality of axially spaced annular lips. An opening is provided through the annular lip facing the annular bearing space which contains lubricant and preferably an opening is provided through each of the other axially spaced annular lips. Also, preferably the opening through each annular lip is circumferentially spaced approximately 180.degree. from the opening through each adjacent lip in order to have a longer labyrinth passageway and to assure complete filling of the seal space between the sealing lips with lubricant.
Claims20
A bearing comprising:
- a housing with an axial bore, a rotatable shaft mounted in said housing and having a diameter less than the diameter of said axial bore in the housing to provide an annular space between said housing and said shaft for containment of lubricant;
- and an annular seal in said annular space including an annular main body portion, an annular inner lip, and at least one other annular lip axially spaced from the inner lip, said inner lip and said at least one other annular lip each having at least one opening, the opening in the inner lip extending from the annular space containing the lubricant through the inner lip and into the annular space provided by the said two axially spaced lips;
- the opening in said at least one other annular lip being circumferentially spaced from the opening in the inner lip and extending from the annular space between the axially spaced lips through said at least one other annular lip, said inner lip and said at least one other lip being constructed so that any flow of lubricant through the openings will follow a torus path in the annular space provided by the two axially spaced lips.
A seal comprising:
- an annular main body portion;
- an annular inner lip;
- and at least one other annular lip axially spaced from the inner lip, said inner lip and said at least one other annular lip each having at least one opening, the opening in said at least one other annular lip being circumferentially spaced from the opening in the inner lip, said inner lip and said at least one other lip being constructed so that in use any flow of lubricant through the openings will follow a torus path in the annular space provided by the two axially spaced lips.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.