Acid/slurry governor seal assembly for centrifugal pumps
AssigneeA. R. Wilfley & Sons, Inc.
InventorsJohn D. Whittier, Douglas W. Drussel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Centrifugal pumps for handling acids or slurries incorporate a ball bearing assembly as the force-responsive governor to control opening and closing of a fluid path leading from the expeller region into a seal, the seals being composed of hard, low-friction sealing materials for handling acids and of resilient materials for handling slurries owing to the solids content in the slurries.
Claims23
In a seal assembly for a centrifugal pump wherein a pump casing includes a housing portion in outer spaced surrounding relation to a drive shaft, an impeller mounted on said drive shaft to discharge liquid introduced through an inlet, and an expeller between said impeller and said housing portion to resist liquid flow past said expeller into said housing portion when said pump is in operation, the improvement comprising:
- an actuator sleeve slidable axially with respect to said drive shaft;
- a driver assembly at one end of said actuator sleeve, said driver assembly including centrifugal force-responsive means movable between a radially inward position when said drive shaft is at rest and a radially outward position when said drive shaft is rotated whereby to impart axial movement to said actuator sleeve, and a control portion operatively connected to said actuator sleeve;
- an annular stationary seal in fixed relation to said pump casing;
- and
- a movable seal member, including retaining means for retaining a movable seal at an opposite end of said actuator sleeve, wherein said retaining means is pressible against said stationary seal, and said retaining means is movable to increase and reduce the pressure on said stationary seal in response to movement of said centrifugal force-responsive means into and away from said radially inward and radially outward positions.
In a seal assembly for a centrifugal pump wherein a pump casing includes a housing portion in outer spaced surrounding relation to a drive shaft, an impeller mounted on said drive shaft to discharge liquid introduced through an inlet, and an expeller between said impeller and said housing portion to resist liquid flow past said expeller into said housing portion when said pump is in operation, the improvement comprising:
- an actuator sleeve slidable axially in surrounding relation to said drive shaft including a radially outwardly extending control portion;
- a driver at one end of said actuator sleeve including a plurality of balls movable between a radially inward position when said drive shaft is at rest and a radially outward position when said drive shaft is rotated whereby to impart axial movement to said control portion;
- an annular stationary seal in fixed relation to said pump casing;
- and
- a movable seal member, including retaining means for retaining movable seal at an opposite end of said actuator sleeve, wherein said retaining means is engageable with said stationary seal and is movable to increase and reduce engagement with said stationary seal in response to movement of said balls into and away from said radially inward and radially outward positions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.