HYDRODYNAMIC ROTARY SEAL WITH OPPOSED TAPERING SEAL LIPS

摘要

A hydrodynamically lubricating rotary seal for partitioning a lubricant from an environment has a generally circular seal body (104) and sloping, generally opposed projecting static and dynamic sealing lips (128 and 127). The dynamic sealing lip (127) is provided for establishing compressed sealing relation with a relatively rotatable surface, and has a sloping dynamic sealing surface (140) that varies in width, and also has a hydrodynamic inlet curvature (142) that varies in position around the circumference of the seal. The seal is installed against a relatively rotatable surface (115), the dynamic sealing lip deforms to define a variable width interfacial contact footprint against the relatively rotatable surface that is wavy on the lubricant side, and wedges a film of lubricating fluid into the interface in response to relative rotation. The environment edge of the interfacial contact footprint is substantially circular, and therefore does not produce a hydrodynamic wedging action in response to relative rotation.