Seal assembly
AssigneeEskom
InventorsJohannes Jacobus Liebenberg, Johan Francois De Villiers
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A seal assembly (10) includes a first seal element (12) defining a fist sealing surface (14); displacement means including at least one electromagnet (20) operatively coupled with the first seal element (12), the displacement means being operable to displace the first seal element (12) via the, or each, electromagnet (20); and a second seal element defining a second sealing surface (28) associated with the first sealing surface (14), the first and second seal elements providing a seal. The invention extends to a combination comprising a gas turbine and a seal assembly. The invention further extends to a method of controlling a spacial relationship between respective sealing surfaces of two seal elements.
Claims19
A seal assembly comprising:
- a support member;
- a carrier member on which a first seal element defining a first sealing surface is mounted;
- a second seal element which is rotatable relative to the support member and the first seal element, the second seal element defining a second sealing surface which together with the first sealing surface forms a seal;
- and
- displacement means including a plurality of electromagnets in spaced relationship with one another acting between the first seal element and the support member to permit displacement of the first seal element relative to both the support member and the second seal element, each of the electromagnets of the displacement means having a core element displaceable with respect to a coil, one of the core element and the coil being connected to the carrier member of the first seal element and the other of the core element and the coil being connected to the support member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.