Multiple Sealing Faces (e.g., Double Seals, Etc.) Patents (Class 277/361)
  • Patent number: 6343793
    Abstract: A rotary union for use with an electroplating apparatus includes a shaft having a first surface area and an extended surface area, the first surface area having a first aperture therein, the extended surface area having a second aperture therein. The rotary union further includes an outer face seal and an inner face seal. The outer face seal is pressed against, and forms a seal with, the first surface area. The inner face seal is pressed against, and forms a seal with, the extended surface area. A pressure passage coupled to the first aperture passes through the outer face seal and around the outside of the inner face seal. A pressure/vacuum passage coupled to the second aperture passes through the inner face seal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2002
    Assignee: Novellus Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Evan E. Patton, Wayne Fetters
  • Patent number: 6325381
    Abstract: A rotary seal adapted for placement on an associated rotating shaft to inhibit fluid flow between the shaft and an associated housing includes an annular main seal member having a peripheral surface, an inner surface defining a central opening, and first and second transverse faces. One of the transverse faces defines a sealing face adapted for sealingly abutting a transverse surface of the associated shaft in a substantially fluid-tight manner. A resilient annular sealing member circumscribes the main seal member and projects radially outwardly therefrom. The resilient annular sealing member is, thus, adapted to sealingly engage the associated housing and the main seal member to inhibit fluid flow therebetween. The resilient sealing member also rotatably fixes the main seal member to the associated housing. An inner ring member is slidably received in a groove defined in the inner surface of the main seal member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2001
    Assignee: System Seals, Inc.
    Inventor: Arnold Arvid Wilhelm Jan von Engelbrechten
  • Patent number: 6305692
    Abstract: A seal device for a submersible machine, such as a pump or a mixer, the seal device being designed as an easily replaceable unit having two mechanical face seals parted by a room for a barrier liquid in which a pump impeller is located. The impeller circulates the barrier liquid passing the liquid along the seals and through cooling channels in the driving unit of the machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2001
    Assignee: ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventor: Ulf Arbeus
  • Patent number: 6293374
    Abstract: A drum brake includes a brake drum attached to an axle, and a brake panel. The brake drum includes a disc portion and a cylindrical portion extending from an outer peripheral end portion of the disc portion towards the brake panel. On an outer peripheral end portion of the cylindrical portion, there is mounted a seal member. The brake panel includes an annular flat surface portion, and a cylindrical projecting portion projecting from an outer peripheral end portion of the annular flat surface portion towards the brake drum so as to surround the seal member. The seal member has plural resilient axial sealing lips and at least one resilient radial sealing lip. The axial sealing lips are in sealing contact with the annular flat surface portion, and the radial lip is in sealing contact with an inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical projecting portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2001
    Assignees: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Arai Seisakusho Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroaki Tomita, Bunzo Seki, Akio Handa, Seiji Kurimoto, Eiji Katabami
  • Patent number: 6273428
    Abstract: A seal assembly which includes first and second annular screens, mounted facing each other coaxially; the first screen carries a seal member made of an elastomeric material which includes a main annular sealing lip, which extends axially from a root portion secured on a flange portion of the first screen, towards a flange portion of the second screen facing the flange portion of the first screen; the lip includes an enlarged portion radially offset with respect to the root portion and delimited by a circumferential rim and an annular sealing projection with a V-shaped section and its sealing edge oriented axially, the circumferential rim having a radial annular seat for a resilient circumferential retaining member, able to exert a predetermined radial stress on the lip, and the V-shaped projection being arranged alongside the seat for the resilient member, with the sealing edge towards the flange portion of the second screen, with which it cooperates slidably in an axial direction; the enlarged portion of the
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2001
    Assignee: RFT S.p.A.
    Inventor: Mauro Sassi
  • Patent number: 6273527
    Abstract: In the rotary pump, a sealing member is provided at a clearance between a casing and axial end surfaces of the inner and outer rotors, the sealing member extending from an outer circumference of the outer rotor, via the inner rotor between a drive shaft and a discharge port, to another circumference of the outer rotor so that brake fluid communication from the discharge port to an intake port may be prevented, but the brake fluid communication between the outer circumference of the outer rotor and almost all of teeth gap portions on a discharge port side and, further, between almost all of teeth gap portions on an intake port side and a clearance between the drive shaft and the inner rotor may be allowed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2001
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Takahiro Yamaguchi, Tomoo Harada, Takashi Satou, Takeshi Fuchida, Hiroyuki Shinkai, Toshiya Morikawa
  • Publication number: 20010002742
    Abstract: An improved shaft seal assembly is disclosed having a stator including a main body and axial and radial projections therefrom. The rotor is radially extended and encompasses the axial and radial projections from said stator. The passageway formed between the radial projection of the stator and the rotor results in an axial passageway having its opening facing rearwardly from the rotor and away from the source of impinging coolant and/or contaminant. The dimension of interface gap between the rotor and the radial projection from the stator, which the access to the shaft of any impinging material, is fixed at a predetermined value and does not vary with the relative movement between the rotor and the stator. The novel seal assembly of this invention thus provides improved rejection or warding off of contaminates from ingress into the labyrinths and ultimately restrained from attacking the bearing environment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 1998
    Publication date: June 7, 2001
    Applicant: H . VICENT HARSHA
    Inventor: DAVID C. ORLOWSKI
  • Patent number: 6224060
    Abstract: A gas seal construction for use on a pump to create a seal between a relatively rotatable pump shaft and housing. A flow barrier arrangement is disposed in close surrounding relationship to the shaft and cooperates with the surrounding housing axially between the seal and the pump chamber for minimizing ingress of pump liquid into the seal chamber during both static and dynamic conditions. The barrier arrangement includes an annular barrier member nonrotatably secured to the shaft and cooperating with an annular shroud which is secured to the housing. The barrier member and shroud have opposed truncated conical surfaces which define a narrow annular passage therebetween which slopes outwardly away from the seal chamber toward the pumping chamber and, at the large diameter end thereof, communicates with an annular sealing zone or dam which is defined between the relatively rotatable barrier member and housing for further restricting ingress of pumping fluid into the seal chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2001
    Assignee: Flowserve Management Company
    Inventors: Joseph C. Parker, Christopher D. McCowey
  • Patent number: 6224061
    Abstract: A mechanical shaft seal includes a rotary assembly and a stationary assembly each of which carry a respective mating seal face. One of the seal faces is located on a floating component mounted for axial movement with respect to the shaft. Means are provided for urging the floating component in a direction towards the other of said seal faces. A non-metallic end cap is provided to protect the seal in the case where the sealed product attacks metallic material. The end cap is arranged so that, in use, it is subjected to substantially balanced hydraulic loading.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2001
    Assignee: AES Engineering Limited
    Inventor: Alan James Roddis
  • Patent number: 6182971
    Abstract: A gas seal construction for use on a pump to create a seal between the relatively rotatable pump shaft and housing. A shroud structure is disposed in close surrounding relationship to the shaft axially between the seal and the pump chamber for causing solid particles in the pump liquid to be returned to the pumping chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2001
    Assignee: Flowserve Management Company
    Inventors: Joseph C. Parker, Christopher D. McCoway
  • Patent number: 6173963
    Abstract: A sealing assembly for an inlet valve of a power nailer includes a fixed frame and a movable member which has a tubular portion movably inserted through the central hole of the fixed frame and is biased by a spring. The movable member is connected to the cylinder so as to push the piston of the cylinder. The fixed frame has a flange with a tapered distal edge so that a seal is mounted to the flange and the seal has a tongue portion rested on the tapered distal edge. The tongue portion movably contacts the tubular portion. The movable member has a tapered distal edge on which a tongue portion of another seal is rested and movably contacts a flange of the fixed frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2001
    Assignee: Basso Industry Corp.
    Inventors: Roman Ho, Sunking Hung, Jack Chen
  • Patent number: 6070880
    Abstract: A mechanical seal combination includes a double mechanical seal and a barrier fluid pump system. A barrier fluid circulating pump 10 is coupled to rotatable shaft 3 so as to derive its motive power from the rotatable shaft. When the rotatable shaft is not running, a by-pass arrangement causes barrier fluids to flow between the barrier fluid header tank 7 and the seal 3, avoiding pump 10, and allowing a thermosyphon effect to be created.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2000
    Assignee: Sealtec MCK Limited
    Inventor: James F. McKeever
  • Patent number: 6062815
    Abstract: A unitized seal impeller thrust system includes an impeller unit which includes a tubular neck portion that has flat surfaces on opposite sides of one another. The impeller unit includes a plurality of radially extending blades and a circular trough surrounding the neck portion. The system further includes a seal head assembly which is secured within the trough, and a seal seat assembly which engages the seal head assembly. The system further includes a thrust washer which engages the seal seat assembly and the retainer ring which is secured to the tubular neck portion at an end of the neck portion. The retainer ring also engages the thrust washer in a ball and socket type arrangement. The system provides a unitized seal, impeller, thrust system that is capable of preload testing and/or leak testing before assembly of the pump unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2000
    Assignee: Freudenberg-NOK General Partnership
    Inventors: Robert S. Holt, John C. Dahlheimer
  • Patent number: 5954341
    Abstract: A seal for sealing a low pressure area from a high pressure area for containing a process fluid. The high pressure area is located along a rotatable shaft extending from a machine body. The seal includes an outboard seal positioned along the shaft and an inboard seal axially spaced along the shaft from the outboard seal to define an annular chamber between the inboard seal and the outboard seal for containing a buffer fluid. The inboard seal includes a stationary assembly attached to the machine body and having a stationary seal ring with a stationary sealing face. The inboard seal also includes a rotating assembly attached to the shaft. The rotating assembly includes a rotating seal ring having a rotating sealing face in sealing relation with the stationary sealing face.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1999
    Assignee: John Crane Sealol Inc.
    Inventors: Yoram Ringer, Fred Rathburn
  • Patent number: 5941531
    Abstract: An improved gas seal having inboard and outboard seal units each defined by a pair of opposed and relatively rotatable seal faces, one face of each pair having appropriate grooves which communicate with a pressurized barrier gas, preferably an inert gas such as nitrogen. The inboard seal unit, at its other seal periphery, communicates with a process fluid being handled by a rotating equipment, namely a pump. Each seal unit has one of the seal rings, the nonrotating ring in the preferred embodiment, urged axially toward its opposed ring by a compact bellows which axially cooperates between the respective seal ring and a backing member. The bellows is positioned to create an isolation between the barrier and process fluids and to provide an effective diameter to provide desirable balance of pressures as imposed on the axially moving seal ring to optimize seal performance. The bellows is preferably a single convolution which is free of fixed securement to the moving seal ring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 24, 1999
    Assignee: Durametallic Corporation
    Inventors: Joseph C. Parker, Christopher D. McCowey, William V. Adams
  • Patent number: 5938205
    Abstract: A dual cartridge seal includes first and second rotary seals each formed by a stationary sealing ring and a rotatable sealing ring and a sleeve, fitted to be co-rotatable with a rotatable shaft to be sealed. The rotatable sealing rings are mounted on the sleeve. The stationary sealing rings are mounted so as to be radially spaced from the sleeve so that the stationary sealing rings and a portion of the sleeve define a barrier fluid chamber. The barrier fluid chamber has an inner wall defined by the portion of the sleeve, and an outer wall defined by the inner surface of the stationary sealing rings or ring holders. In order to promote barrier fluid circulation within the barrier fluid chamber, and thereby to more effectively remove heat from the regions of the rotary seals, the inner wall and the outer radial wall are oriented so that at least one of those walls is non-parallel to the rotational axis of the shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 17, 1999
    Assignee: A.W. Chesterton Company
    Inventors: Henri V. Azibert, Arch Ray Clark
  • Patent number: 5924697
    Abstract: An improved gas seal having inboard and outboard seal units each defined by a pair of opposed and relatively rotatable seal faces, one face of each pair having appropriate grooves which communicate with a pressurized barrier gas, preferably an inert gas such as nitrogen. The inboard seal unit, at its other seal periphery, communicates with a process fluid being handled by a rotating equipment, namely a pump. Each seal unit has one of the seal rings, the nonrotating ring in the preferred embodiment, urged axially toward its opposed ring by a compact bellows which axially cooperates between the respective seal ring and a backing member. The bellows is positioned to create an isolation between the barrier and process fluids and to provide an effective diameter to provide desirable balance of pressures as imposed on the axially moving seal ring to optimize seal performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 20, 1999
    Assignee: Durametallic Corporation
    Inventors: Joseph C. Parker, Christopher D. McCowey, William V. Adams
  • Patent number: 5909878
    Abstract: A mechanical face seal assembly for sealing a rotating member with respect to a stationary member comprises at least a pair of cooperating annular sealing elements, of which one is mountable in a non-rotating manner with respect to the stationary member and the other for common rotation with the rotating member. Between the rotating member and the non-rotating sealing element an annular space is defined, the radial dimension of which varies between a region of minimum radial dimension and a region of maximum radial dimension, which are offset circumferentially to each other. Inlet means for introducing a buffer liquid into the annular space at or near to the region having a maximum radial dimension and outlet means for discharging said buffer liquid from said annular space at or near to the region having a minimum radial dimension are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 8, 1999
    Assignee: Feodor Burgmann Dichtungswerke GmbH & Co.
    Inventors: Andreas Schrufer, Walter Ittner, Reinhard Svejkovsky, Andreas Schopf, Dieter Ziegenbein
  • Patent number: 5906374
    Abstract: A method for controlling leakage of a barrier fluid from a dual seal assembly of equipment, such as a pump or valve, employs a barrier fluid supply arrangement connected to a barrier fluid chamber of the dual seal assembly, a pressure intensifier mechanism coupled to a process fluid chamber and the barrier fluid chamber of the dual seal assembly and being operable to maintain the pressure of the barrier fluid at a preset level above the pressure of the process fluid in response to the absence of barrier fluid leakage from the dual seal assembly, and a pressure monitoring and control arrangement coupled to the barrier fluid supply arrangement and the pressure intensifier mechanism and being operable to detect and measure the decrease of the barrier fluid pressure below the preset level and to compensate therefor by actuating the barrier fluid supply arrangement to supply barrier fluid to the barrier fluid chamber until the barrier fluid pressure has increased above the preset level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 25, 1999
    Inventor: Donald P. Arbuckle
  • Patent number: 5901965
    Abstract: A balanced, de-coupled seal assembly for use in a bellows seal having a mating rotating seal assembly, wherein the seal is used for sealing a process fluid along a rotatable shaft extending from a machine body. The seal assembly includes a seal ring, a seal ring shell mating with and de-coupled from the seal ring, and a flexible O-ring between the seal ring and the seal ring shell. The O-ring is provided at a location so to balance the seal ring and seal ring shell under both normal and reverse pressure conditions and to prevent the process fluid from leaking between the seal ring and the seal ring shell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 11, 1999
    Inventors: Yoram Ringer, David Casucci
  • Patent number: 5820130
    Abstract: The mechanical seal for movable joints of machines comprises at least two pairs of nonelastomer cylindrical rings (4, 5, 16) ground to each other with their faces and having their outer surfaces eccentrically displaced, and the rings themselves cooperate with an elastomer element (3, 15). One of the surfaces of the elastomer element (3, 15) (an outer or an inner one, respectively), has eccentrically arranged shoulders (17, 18, 19, 20) or borings (6, 7). The seal rings (4, 5, 16) have concentric cylindrical surfaces and are fitted on the shoulders (17,18,19,20) or in the borings (6,7).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 13, 1998
    Inventor: Boris Semenovich Zakharov
  • Patent number: 5803463
    Abstract: A mechanical seal assembly for creating a sealing relationship between a housing and a shaft which is rotatable relative thereto. The seal assembly includes first and second coaxially aligned and axially adjacent seal rings disposed in an encircling relationship to the shaft and having axially adjacent and opposed flat seal faces for creating an annular sealing region therebetween. The seal assembly further includes a self-contained grease supply device for supplying a continuous flow of grease to a seal chamber at a substantially steady or uniform flow rate and a grease discharge device for pressurizing the grease and permitting a flow of excess grease therethrough. The pressurized grease is positioned adjacent the seal rings to provide a self-regulating supply of grease which is drawn into the sealing region during upset conditions of the seal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 1996
    Date of Patent: September 8, 1998
    Assignee: Durametallic Corporation
    Inventors: Clive A. Brooks, Kenneth G. Kakabaker