Seal assembly and method
AssigneeIP Consortium Limited
InventorTimothy Shires
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A corner seal assembly for a rotor of a rotary engine, the assembly comprising a pair of corner seal elements, each seal element of the pair being arranged to provide a seal between the rotor and a respective one of a pair of opposed end faces of the rotary engine, the seals being arranged to be resiliently coupled to one another whereby the seals exert substantially the same force on each one of the pair of opposed end faces.
Claims13
A rotor and seal assembly for a rotary engine, the assembly comprising a rotor having a slot, the assembly further comprising a pair of corner seal elements, each seal element of the pair being arranged to provide a seal between the rotor and a respective one of a pair of opposed end faces of the rotary engine, the seal elements being arranged to be resiliently coupled to one another whereby the seal elements exert substantially the same force on each one of the pair of opposed end faces;
- the assembly further comprising a body element arranged in the slot of the rotor and arranged to be provided between the pair of seal elements, the body element having an aperture there through,
- the seal elements being directly coupled to one another by means of a seal coupling;
- the seal coupling being arranged to pass through the aperture in the body element;
- and
- the assembly further comprising a tip seal arranged to provide a seal between a tip of the rotor and a sidewall of the rotary engine;
- wherein the body portion and corner seal elements are each provided with a recessed portion arranged to receive a portion of the tip seal assembly therein.
A method of forming an assembly for a rotary engine, comprising:
- providing a rotor having a slot, providing a pair of corner seal elements, each corner seal element of the pair being arranged to provide a seal between the rotor and a respective one of a pair of opposed end faces of the rotary engine;
- resiliently coupling the corner seal elements to one another whereby the seal elements may be arranged to exert substantially the same force on each one of the pair of opposed end faces of the rotary engine,
- the method further comprising providing a body element in the slot of the rotor and between the pair of seal elements, the body element having an aperture there through, and coupling the corner seal elements to one another by means of a seal coupling, the method comprising passing the seal coupling through the aperture in the body element, and
- the method further comprising providing a tip seal arranged to provide a seal between a tip of the rotor and a sidewall of the rotary engine, wherein the body portion and corner seal elements are each provided with a recessed portion arranged to receive a portion of the tip seal assembly therein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.