Shaft seal and method
AssigneeGarlock Inc.
InventorDouglas A. Cather, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A shaft seal 10 and method for sealing fluids in applications with excessive shaft-to-bore misalignment or dynamic shaft runout, including a seal 10 having a mounting section 22, a sealing element 24, and a convoluted flex section 26 which allows radial movement of the sealing element. The sealing element 24 includes a bearing member 42 having a liner 46 with a low friction, cylindrical bearing surface adjacent the lip 38, for causing the lip 38 to follow any radial movement of the shaft, and to prevent the lip 38 from taking an oval shape and leaking.
Claims37
An annular shaft seal for sealing against the flow of fluid through an annular space between a bore of a housing and a shaft extending through the bore, comprising:
- (a) an annular bore retention section;
- (b) an annular sealing element;
- (c) an annular convoluted flex section connecting said bore retention section to said sealing element and adapted to allow said sealing element to move freely radially with a shaft and relative to said bore retention section;
- and
- (d) said sealing element including:
- (1) a sealing lip adapted to sealingly contact a shaft extending through said seal and also including (2) a bearing member having a cylindrical low friction bearing surface adjacent said sealing lip adapted to contact a shaft in sealing contact with said sealing lip.
A method for sealing against the flow of fluid through an annular space between a bore of a housing and a shaft extending through the bore, wherein excessive shaft-to-bore misalignment and/or dynamic shaft runout exists, comprising the steps of:
- (a) mounting in said bore a shaft seal including an annular bore retention section, an annular sealing element, and an annular convoluted flex section connecting the bore retention section to the sealing element, said sealing element including a sealing lip and positioning said sealing lip in sealing contact with said shaft;
- and
- (b) preventing said sealing lip from taking an oval shape which would result in leakage of fluid through said seal, by positioning in said sealing element, adjacent said lip, a bearing member having a cylindrical, axially extending, low-friction bearing surface in contact with said shaft for providing a bearing with respect to said shaft for forcing said sealing lip to move radially with said shaft and for providing a stiffening action to said sealing element to eliminate the tendency for said lip to take an oval shape.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.