Floating ring seal with return structures and process for making it

US5529317A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Flex Box Limited

Inventor

• Heinz Muller · Waiblingen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 10, 1993
• Grant date: Jun 25, 1996
• Expiry date: Dec 10, 2013

Classification

• Technology area (CPC F): Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
• CPC primary: F16J15/3424
• WIPO field: Mechanical elements
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

In order to return the fluid which has penetrated into the sealing gap of a floating ring seal, recesses with closed edges are machined inside the region permanently covered by the sealing surfaces in a sealing ring in which the fluid is drawn to an end of the recess very close to the chamber to be sealed and hydrodynamically taken to a high pressure. Mirror-image recesses are effective regardless of the direction of rotation. The recesses are machined in very small sliding surfaces of ceramic sealing rings using a laser beam. Such a floating ring seal has a relatively low leakage rate with low friction. Two fluids can be mutually sealed with a double recess array.