Take-apart seal

Abstract

A face seal assembly for preventing leakage of fluid around a rotating shaft of a machine, including a housing in the form of an annular U-shaped trough open at one end and closed at the other end. An annular seal element fits into the housing and is biased outwardly by a spring toward the open end into engagement with a mating ring. The seal element is held in the housing during assembly or servicing of the machine by two spring latch mechanisms which each include a formed spring fastened in a channel. The two spring mechanisms are welded to the inner face of the outer wall of the housing at diametrically opposed positions. The annular seal element has a notch in its outer circumferential wall on opposed diametrical sides to enable the seal element to fit snugly with the housing, with the channels received within the notches. The formed spring includes a spring finger on each end that projects circumferentially beyond the channel to engage the top of the seal element and hold it in the housing against the force of the biasing spring. The spring fingers can be flexed inwardly within the channel to clear the sides of the seal element groove to enable the element to be easily removed from the housing for inspection, repair, or replacement.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.