Abstract: A seal for preventing the flow of fluid under high pressure, between a carrier and a mating element adapted to engage the carrier is provided by a resilient elastomeric sealing element which is disposed in an arcuate groove in the carrier and deformed when the carrier is joined to the mating element. The sealing element has a base with oppositely extending wings and a head with a convex surface that is engaged by the mating element for deflecting the head within the groove.

Abstract: An annular multilayer seal including a series of more than two successive layers of elastomeric material. The layers vary in hardness in the axial direction of the seal, the outermost layers being the hardest and the innermost layer being the softest. Where the seal has at least five layers, the hardness of each layer between the innermost layer and each outermost layer is about the average of the hardnesses of the innermost and outermost layers. The innermost layer may have a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape, the major base of the trapezoid being at the inside surface of the seal. The thickness of the other layers may vary nonlinearly from the inside surface to the outside surface of the seal.

Abstract: A seal able to withstand high temperature, high pressure, corrosive environments including a ring-shaped core comprising an elastomer-impregnated asbestos yarn winding, and an elastomer-impregnated asbestos yarn helical winding surrounding and extending along the entire length of the core. The elastomer is a tetrafluorethylene-propylene copolymer or terpolymer, an ethylene-propylene copolymer or terpolymer, or a hydrogenated butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymer. There may be a plurality of helical windings around the core, one overlying another, and each turn of each winding may be parallel to, or at an acute angle to, a diameter of the core which passes through that turn. The cross-sectional shape of the seal may be circular, V-shaped, or any other advantageous seal shape.

Abstract: A seal for use in high temperature, aggressive environments, such as a geothermal well, including a ring-shaped element of a polymer, such as tetrafluoroethylene/perfluoro (alkyl vinyl ether) copolymer, which is substantially crystalline at room temperature, has a crystalline melt temperature above 500.degree. F., and melts at a temperature above 650.degree. F. The polymer has a molecular weight of at least about 400,000 and is characterized by molecular chain entanglements to the extent of an average of at least about ten physical entanglements per chain when the polymer is in an amorphous state. The polymer element expands in response to the high temperatures within the well, so that when the seal is located in the annular space between concentric tubular well members, it expands to press tightly against both members.

Abstract: A multilayer seal comprising a stack of rings, some being made of elastomeric material and some being made of more rigid material, such as a metal. The elastomeric and rigid rings alternate in the axial direction of the stack, and the elastomeric rings are progressively thinner in the axial direction of the stack. Each ring is preferably bonded to the next successive ring in the stack. When the seal is in place between two opposed surfaces to be sealed against fluid pressure, the thickest of the elastomeric rings is arranged nearest the higher pressure end of the opposed surfaces.