Split mechanical face seal

A split mechanical face seal for providing fluid-tight sealing between a housing and a shaft adapted to rotate relative thereto, said split seal comprising:

• adjacent, rigid, annular, primary and mating rings formed of a plurality of arcuate ring segments, each defining generally radial, opposed sealing faces;
• means for joining and retaining the ring segments of each of said rings in rigid connection with the other segments of each ring, whereby each said opposed sealing face defined by said rings has a smooth surface devoid of discontinuities around its complete circumference, said joining and retaining means further comprising:
• a resilient split means for said primary ring and a resilient split means for said mating ring, each said resilient split means positioning and supporting its associated ring in a generally coaxial relationship with the shaft and with the other ring, so that the sealing face of each said ring is in opposite and facing relationship to the sealing face of the other said ring, said resilient split means for said primary ring rigidly supporting said primary ring from axial and radial movement, said resilient split means for said mating ring nonrigidly supporting said mating ring and biasing said mating ring in an axial direction against said primary ring;
• a split holder means for said mating ring and a split holder means for said primary ring, said split holder means for said mating ring circumferentially connecting said mating ring resilient split means to said mating in a substantially concentric relationship, said split holder means for said primary ring circumferentially connecting said primary ring resilient split means to said primary ring in a substantially concentric relationship, each said split holder means comprising a pair of semicircular holder members releasably attachable to each other and when in an attached condition, sealingly engaging and compressing to a limited degree at least a portion of each said respective resilient split means upon its associated segmented ring;
• and
• a relative axial positioning means for maintaining the position of the split mating ring holder means relative to the split primary ring holder means in a substantially identical relative axial position during shaft rotation, said relative axial positioning means comprising at least one positioning member for axially positioning one of the mating ring holder means or the primary ring holder means relative to the other of the holder means while simultaneously permitting relative rotation of one said holder means relative to the other, said relative axial positioning means enabling said split mechanical face seal to compensate for relative temporary large axial displacements of the primary ring holder means relative to the mating ring holder means.