Abstract: A controlled leakage seal assembly having a first stationary portion adapted to be connected in substantially fluid-tight relation to a source of drilling fluid and a second portion adapted to be connected in substantially fluid-tight relation to a rotary portion including a washpipe. The seal includes a first housing and a stack of radially inwardly extending, spaced apart annular stators, and a second seal housing and stack of spaced apart radially outwardly extending annular rotors interleaved with one another. The seal assembly, a cartridge, permits the first and second housings to rotate relative to each other in substantially fluid-tight relation except for the drilling fluid entering an outlet region at greatly reduced pressure. In a preferred embodiment, the seal is held by a sleeve that permits the cartridge to be removed and replaced while the fluid connections to the sleeve remains.

Abstract: An air dryer system including two substantially identical canister-type air dryer units. Each includes a moist air inlet, a first desiccant, a dry air outlet, and means for supplying dry air to a storage facility. The system also includes a bleed valve supplying a small portion of the dry air to regenerate a second desiccant, and a first moist air purge valve. The system operates in the opposite mode and supplies air to a storage facility. Located between the moist air inlets and the desiccants are a pair of air-oil separators. In these, upwardly directed air flows through a housing, striking a deflector plate, and escapes beneath a vertically extending fence and through vents containing a filter medium.

Abstract: A tool for installing oil or grease seals. The tool includes a cup member with a driving handle at the top thereof. Various sizes of a seal installing member are provided and all have the same upper cylindrical portion with the lower cylindrical portion being of various sizes, depending on the seal with which it is to be used. The tool also includes a pair of extension sleeves, one with an internal rib and the other with an external rib for supporting the cylindrical portions of the sleeve and the installing part when assembled. Each of the second parts and the sleeves include locking pins or slots for receiving the locking pins. The working portion of the tool is the lower annular end face and the cup-like top portion includes a closed face on the top for supporting the tool or one of the extension sleeves.

Abstract: An elastomeric bearing having inner and outer races and a core. The core has a plurality of resilient laminae and a plurality of non-resilient laminae interleaved with one another. Each of the lamina has an axially inner cylindrical portion of a given diameter, an axially outer cylindrical portion of a greater diameter than the given diameter and, lying between the inner and outer laminae, an angled portion joining the axially inner and outer laminae to each other. The laminae are continuous and of one piece. In this way, the elastomeric bearing has comparatively small resistance to torsional movement, but great resistance to both radial and axial movement.

Abstract: A large-diameter PTFE seal. The lip of the seal is made from a long strip of PTFE bound together at the ends with the aid of a patching tape to form a closed loop. The loop is then flanged and placed between an inner and an outer case, together with a rubber-like gasket, and the cases are crimped together, entrapping the lip material between them.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for temporarily reforming or deforming the lip portion of a resinous seal so that the seal may be readily installed in an intended application. The invention includes a method and apparatus that includes a fixed frame unit having two leg portions and a backbone portion, a slot in each position, an axle in each slot, and roller assemblies received over each axle, with adjustment means for each axle, the guide rollers being circumferentially spaced apart and the center or reforming roller being adjustable.

Abstract: The hub cap has first end wall portion, a sidewall portion and a laterally extending mounting flange. There are plural fastener-receiving openings in the flange. A second endwall portion is integrally formed on the flange and is free from engagement with the hold-down ring. The second end wall portion has a plurality of integral retainers of reduced diameter with respect to the remainder of the wall. There is a hold down ring made from a stiff metal material, overlying the flange on the hub cap. The hold down ring has plural fastener-receiving openings therein, and the retainers snugly secure the hold-down ring in its installed position.

Abstract: A hubcap for a wheel hub. The hub is threaded and preferably includes several notches in its otherwise smooth radially outer end face. The hubcap has an open end terminating in a threaded end portion, a closed end and a discontinuous radial flange between the ends. One or more latching tabs fit into the discontinuities in the flange, and each tab contains a projection which fits into the notch. The tab can be manually lifted to disengage the tab from the notch, but the hubcap cannot otherwise be unscrewed.

Abstract: A seal assembly which acts as a piston in a vehicle power steering unit. The seal includes a casing and an elastomeric seal body and is affixed to a movable rack at two attachment points. One point is the tail portion of an axial flange swaged into a groove in the rack, and a second part of the same axial flange has a groove for retaining a locking ring in a second groove in the rack. The rack moves within a housing having a first bore, a counterbore, and an enlarged bore. The seal comprises two oppositely facing lips and a lip body bonded to a radial flange of the seal assembly and engaging the enlarged bore which divides the space into two pressurizable fluid receiving cavities. An auxiliary seal is seated in the counterbore and seals the first bore. The seal assembly has a nose portion which engages the auxiliary seal to fully seat it in the counterbore. The nose portion, in one case, is a separate axially extending plastic piece that seats in a groove in the seal body.

Abstract: A tone ring assembly for use on a rotatable machine part. The tone ring is able to generate a varying voltage output when rotated at varying speeds. A fixed position magnetic sensor detects this voltage. The tone ring comprises an axially extending main body portion having a plurality of areas able to generate a voltage upon rotation. A retainer having at least one radial flange prevents axial movement of the tone ring and the tone ring includes ribs and spaces on its inside diameter to permit oil to pass therethrough.

Abstract: A tone ring assembly for use on a rotatable machine part. The tone ring is able to generate a varying voltage output when rotated at varying speeds. A fixed position magnetic sensor detects this voltage. The tone ring comprises an axially extending main body portion having a plurality of areas able to generate a voltage upon rotation. A retainer having at least one radial flange prevents axial movement of the tone ring and the tone ring includes ribs and spaces on its inside diameter to permit oil to pass therethrough.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for devulcanizing cured or cross-linked elastomers. The method includes subdividing elastomeric raw material into small particle form, confining the particles of elastomer under high force, as in a screw extruder or the like and, as the particles remain confined, imparting ultrasonic energy to the mass to effect devulcanization. Energy is fed to the confined particles transversely of the axis along which they are advancing, and energy from a source is reflected off a portion of the apparatus and back into the treatment zone so as to achieve maximum energy utilization. In particular instances, reflection of energy is achieved by providing opposed, powered ultrasonic horns that resonate in phase with each other. In another embodiment, oppositely directed, resonantly tuned horns are used, with less than all such horns being powered and the remainder being passive or unpowered reflecting horns who resonant frequency is tuned to that of the powered horn.

Abstract: A wear sleeve for use with the active face of an associated seal unit. The wear sleeve includes a radial flange and an axial flange having a plurality of grooves therein. The grooves are formed on an inner margin of the blank while the blank is in a flat condition. Thereafter, the axial flange is drawn in a skirt forming die so as to create an outer surface on the axial flange having a hydrodynamic pattern thereon. The grooves are formed in a sinusoidal pattern, and the inner surface of the skirt forming die is free from formations creating interference with the skirt.

Abstract: A fluid seal for installation in a high pressure environment. The seal casing comprises a casing member with an axial flange and a radial flange. The seal includes a rubber lip body and a flex neck section forming a pocket in which a synthetic resinous anti-extrusion insert is trapped. A radial flange of the casing includes on its innermost axial surface a plurality of shallow, spaced apart re-entrant formations, and the anti-extrusion insert in use overlying and covering at least the re-entrant portion of a face of the radial flange.

Abstract: A configuration that promotes cleaner fracture by reducing or eliminating secondary fractures includes a plurality of distinct interconnecting regions defining a plurality of separate fracture regions that are separated by an interruption.

Abstract: A support assembly comprising an elongated shaft, a bearing assembly at opposite terminal ends of said shaft paralleled in a pillow block, support means for each of said pillow blocks and means mounting one of said bearing assemblies for adjustable axial movement relative to said pillow block thereby to compensate for any changes in the support structure in an axial direction and a method for supporting a load bearing member on spaced support structures comprising the steps of mounting the lower half of a pillow block on each of the spaced support structures, positioning a shaft having bearings journaled at opposite ends so that the bearings engage in the lower half of the pillow block, assembling the cap section of each pillow block, fixing the bearing in one of the pillow blocks against displacement in an axial directions relative to the pillow block, and displacing the bearing in the other pillow block axially to position it generally centrally in the pillow block with a predetermined clearance between the

Abstract: A one-piece, reusable hub seal unit for heavy duty axles and the like. The unit includes a stiff but flexible casing covered with an elastomeric portion. The casing has a radial flange, a slightly axially inclined sleeve portion, and a purely axial portion ending in a free edge. The elastomeric covering is thin adjacent the free edge, gradually increases in thickness throughout the slightly inclined axial extent and finally contains a radial section covering the flange and having two or more sealing ribs. A cover holds the seal unit in place when it seals snugly in the counterbore. When the cover is removed, the seal may be removed by hand from the counterbore.

Abstract: An oil seal for a locking differential mechanism. The seal assembly includes a generally flat plate with a first generally circular oil seal adjacent an outer margin of the flat plate, a circular inner margin defining an opening in the flat plate with a second oil seal surrounding the inner margin, an oil outlet opening lying in an otherwise imperforate area between the first and second margins, and a cover for the flat plate with the cover and plate defining between them a passage for oil extending from a point radially outside the first seal to at least a point adjacent the oil outlet. The seal takes in a supply of oil from the differential sump and supplies it through the oil outlet to a multi-plate clutch which is activated only when the two axles undergo rotation relative to each other and thereby actuate a Gerotor type oil pump.

Abstract: An air dryer having dual, spin-on canister assemblies. The unit also includes first and second valve bodies, each containing a moist air inlet valve, a dried air outlet valve and an exhaust and drain valve assembly. A single control valve assembly allows the exhaust valves to open in response to air pressure and close in the absence of pressure. The moist air inlet valves are responsive to high external air pressure for biasing the valves open. The dried air outlet valves have a small orifice therein to allow air to bleed therethrough when the valves are closed. The canisters each include inner and outer imperforate sleeves, and passages arranged such that incoming air passes between the sleeves, through the desiccant and out the dry air outlet valve. When the control valve shifts, the air flow is reversed and the desiccant is regenerated.

Abstract: A two-piece cartridge-type seal for wheel bearings and the like. The seal element contains a radial flange having a seal attached thereto and a mounting flange portion. The wear sleeve portion includes a cylindrical flange receivable over a rotary part, and a radial flange having an extension with an inner surface which engages a part of the seal during installation only. In use, the radial flange of the wear sleeve is engaged by a tool, and this radial flange deflects slightly to push the seal element into a desired position of installation, whereupon, when the tool is removed, the radial flange springs back and creates a slight working clearance between these parts.