Garlock, Inc.

Skf USA Inc.

Aktiebolaget Skf

Dennis N Denton

Dean R Bainard

Martin E Benjamin

Linas Maskaliunas

Sandra L Stroup

David G Boyd

Glenn W Peisker

George Fedorovich

David Dobbs

Mark F Spreitzer

Kacy D Denton

Kevin R Suva

Thomas Sochacki

Sandra Stroup

A heavy duty composite oil seal with an outer cup and a plastic inner cup. The outer cup includes a major diameter mounting flange portion terminating in a curl, a minor diameter wear sleeve portion, and a transition portion joining the major and minor diameter portions. There is an elastomeric seal body and an embedded stiffener, with the elastomeric seal body having a sealing lip contacting the inner axial surface of the wear sleeve portion. There is a plastic inner cup member with an axial flange substantially co-extensive with the mounting flange and entrapped along the major diameter flange portion between the curl portion and the transition portion of the outer cup. The inner cup also has a radially extending flange that engages a radial portion of the elastomeric seal body. The plastic inner cup member has a continuous curvilinear inner surface.

Seal with plastic inner cup

A heavy duty composite oil seal with an outer cup and a plastic inner cup. The outer cup includes a major diameter mounting flange portion terminating in a curl, a minor diameter wear sleeve portion, and a transition portion joining the major and minor diameter portions. There is an elastomeric seal body and an embedded stiffener, with the elastomeric seal body having a sealing lip contacting the inner axial surface of the wear sleeve portion. There is a plastic inner cup member with an axial flange substantially co-extensive with the mounting flange and entrapped along the major diameter flange portion between the curl portion and the transition portion of the outer cup. The inner cup also has a radially extending flange that engages a radial portion of the elastomeric seal body. The plastic inner cup member has plural, evenly spaced diagonal braces extending between and joining the axial flange and the radial flange of the inner cup.

An oil seal having the usual lips for retaining oil and a guide member made of a variety of relatively stiff or rigid materials. The guide member is made slightly larger than the smallest diameter of the seal member when the seal rests on the shaft. The seal member can have the guide member on either the air side or the oil side of the seal. The disclosure also relates to a shipping plug, which is inserted into the seal and retains the oil in place during shipping when the seal is installed but a shaft is not installed.

Seal with guide member

A composite drain plug for an automobile engine. The drain plug is made up of a hollow metal sleeve that is flanged at one end and closed at the other end. There is a core portion filling the hollow sleeve and having a head portion and a stub flange adjacent the flanged end of the sleeve. A circumferential sealing bead is bonded to the stub flange. The core portion is a glass-filled polymer and the sealing bead is made from a material which includes a cross-linked elastomer dispersed in a thermoplastic carrier.

Composite drain plug

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.

Low cost truck or like hubcaps

A heavy duty vehicle hubcap preferably made from a plastic material and having a sidewall, an end wall with a transparent window insert formed therein, and further including a radial mounting flange. The mounting flange is reinforced with a mounting ring insert made from a rigid, preferably metal body. The mounting flange and the ring insert include radially elongated bosses and openings. The hubcap also includes an access port formed in the hubcap body sidewall and a plug removably positioned in liquid tight relation within the access port. Preferably, the hubcap is vented to permit passage of gas and vapor therethrough without permitting liquid to pass into the sealed region. An insert molding method is described wherein the ring insert and the window are separately formed and then bonded to the hubcap body.

Hubcap and method of manufacturing the same

A hub cap for heavy duty axles. The hub cap includes a breather vent disc made from a non-metallic material partially fused so as to permit air flow therethrough in both a grease-free and a greased condition, such vent disc being mechanically secured to a disc carrier, and the carrier being received in fluid-tight relation to the end wall portion of the hub cap body.

Hub cap vent device

A disc brake assembly 10 and method for preventing binding of disc brake caliper slider pins 34 in bushing seals 14 of a disc brake caliper 18. The bushing seal 14 is a unitary, molded, tubular article including a molded tubular elastomeric body 44 having a hydraulically formed tubular polytetrafluoroethylene liner 46 bonded to the I.D. of the elastomeric body and having a polytetrafluoroethylene scraper lip 48 adjacent the inboard end 50 of the bushing seal for scraping foreign particles off of the slider pin 34 to keep them out of the bushing seal 14 where they could cause binding. The bushing seal 14 also has a smooth tapering O.D. surface such that it can be easily installed in a slider pin bore 30.

Disc brake assembly and method

A thrust washer is combined with a seal for preventing contaminants from entering into the assembly and doing corrosion damage. In one embodiment, a spring shackle bracket assembly thrust washer is provided with an elastomeric seal bonded thereto and having a sealing lip extending from the I.D. of the washer axially into the space between the spring eye and the shackle pin. In addition, a layer of the seal material on a radial face of the washer can prevent wear between the washer and the adjacent bracket.

Combination thrust washer and seal article, apparatus and method

A shaft seal (and method for making the same) of the type having an annular elastomeric body, a molded lip, and the molded lip having a liner of sintered polytetrafluoroethylene bonded thereto. The elastomer is molded simultaneously with the polytetrafluoroethylene liner being formed and bonded to the elastomer. The method for making the seal employs the same mold used to make common, molded lip elastomeric seals.

Molded lip seal with polytetrafluoroethylene liner and method for making

Combination thrust washer and seal article, apparatus

An annular scraper and a shaft seal including a scraper and a method for making the same. The seal and scraper are of bonded construction. The seal includes an outer shell such as a stainless steel capsule, a polytetrafluoroethylene sealing element, a brass scraper, and a bonded elastomeric ring behind the scraper to allow deflection and return of the scraper. The scraper is preferably a single member having a continuous, uniform scraping edge without any slits. A bushing can be included for guiding a reciprocating shaft (a cable or rod) in near perfect alignment. The process preferably includes the step of forming the scraping edge by pinching or piercing a brass member in the mold simultaneously with the steps of molding the elastomeric ring and bonding the elastomeric ring to the scraper. The process of making the seal includes the step of simultaneously forming the ring of polytetrafluoroethylene into a sealing element. The piercing step eliminates the need for a separate piercing step and provides improved concentricity of the annular scraping edge.

Shaft seal with scraper

A shaft seal of the type including an annular metal case and a flexible non-elastomeric sealing element such as polytetrafluoroethylene is made by molding a synthetic rubber filler ring between the metal case and the sealing element such that it bonds to both the metal case and to the sealing element, providing a faster and less expensive method of manufacturing the seal, while eliminating any leakage route between the metal case and the sealing element and also eliminating the I.D. to O.D. concentricity problem. In the embodiment where the sealing element is polytetrafluoroethylene, the filler ring chemically bonds to the metal case and mechanically bonds to the sealing element. Hydrodynamic pumping members can be molded onto the shaft engaging surface of the sealing element during the process of molding the synthetic rubber filler ring.

Bonded TFE lip seal

A method for producing a bi-directional hydrodynamic sealing element for a shaft seal wherein the sealing element is made from a non-elastomeric material such as polytetrafluoroethylene, and has a sealing lip and a plurality of bi-directional pumping elements on a shaft engaging surface thereof, formed as a series of non-concentric circles or other geometric figures on the non-elastomeric sealing element while it is flat. The centers of the non-concentric circles are located on the periphery of a circle concentric with the sealing lip. The flat sealing element is then formed into a conical lip type sealing element and the circular pumping elements become elliptically shaped, bi-directonal helical pumping elements.

Growing community of inventors

Gastonia, NC, United States of America

Dennis N Denton