Kalsi Engineering, Inc.

Other

Jeffrey D Gobeli

Lannie Laroy Dietle

Manmohan Singh Kalsi

Aaron Paul Richie

John Erick Schroeder

William T Conroy

Victor Garcia, Jr

A rotary shaft sealing assembly having a rotatable shaft, a seal housing having a groove bore located radially outward of and facing the rotatable shaft, and a sealing element in sealing contact with the shaft and groove bore. The sealing element having seal body first and second ends and tangs extending axially from the seal body first end. A shelf member has an outer groove wall and a shelf defining an inner groove wall. The inner and outer groove walls providing axial support to the sealing element in certain conditions of assembly and operation. The seal housing or the shelf member providing restraints, with a portion of the restraints in circumferential alignment with the tangs and blocking rotation of the sealing element. The shelf, located radially between the shaft and the restraints, blocks and prevents loss of the restraints.

Seal assembly with anti-rotation and stability features

A hydrodynamically lubricated sealing element for applications where the pressure of a contained fluid can be significantly greater than the pressure of the seal lubricant. The sealing element retains the pressure of the contained fluid and provides hydrodynamic lubricant pumping activity at the dynamic sealing interface to enhance service life. The invention is particularly suitable for oilfield drilling swivel washpipe assemblies, downhole drilling tools, and rotary mining equipment, and for applications such as artificial lift pump stuffing box assemblies and centrifugal pumps where a rotating shaft penetrates a pressurized reservoir that is filled with abrasive-laden liquids, mixtures, or slurries.

Rotary seal with supported inlet

A seal backup ring is provided with undulating surfaces which create circumferential convergence with a relatively rotatable surface. The backup ring is configured so that differential pressure acting across a rotary seal forces portions of the backup ring against the relatively rotatable surface, closing, or substantially closing, the extrusion gap that the rotary seal is exposed to. In response to relative rotation between the backup ring and the mating relatively rotatable surface, the circumferential convergence promotes hydrodynamic lubrication within the dynamic interface that exists between the backup ring and the relatively rotatable surface. The modulus of elasticity of the backup ring is greater than the modulus of elasticity of the rotary seal.

Hydrodynamic backup ring

A hydrodynamically lubricating rotary seal for partitioning a lubricant from an environment has a generally circular seal body, a sloping dynamic sealing lip, and an energizer. The dynamic sealing lip is provided for establishing compressed sealing relation with a relatively rotatable surface, and has a sloping dynamic sealing surface that varies in width, and also has a hydrodynamic inlet curvature that varies in position around the circumference of the seal. When the seal is installed against a relatively rotatable surface, 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.

Hydrodynamic rotary seal

Hydrodynamic rotary seal with opposed tapering seal lips

Hydrodynamic rotary seal with varying slope

A novel hydrodynamically lubricated compression type rotary seal that is suitable for lubricant retention and environmental exclusion. Particularly, the seal geometry ensures constraint of a hydrodynamic seal in a manner preventing skew-induced wear and provides adequate room within the seal gland to accommodate thermal expansion. The seal accommodates large as-manufactured variations in the coefficient of thermal expansion of the sealing material, provides a relatively stiff integral spring effect to minimize pressure-induced shuttling of the seal within the gland, and also maintains interfacial contact pressure within the dynamic sealing interface in an optimum range for efficient hydrodynamic lubrication and environment exclusion. The seal geometry also provides for complete support about the circumference of the seal to receive environmental pressure, as compared the interrupted character of seal support set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,873,576 and 6,036,192 and provides a hydrodynamic seal which is suitable for use with non-Newtonian lubricants.

Skew resisting hydrodynamic seal

A laterally translatable pressure staged rotary shaft sealing mechanism having a seal housing with a shaft passage therein being exposed to a fluid pressure P,and with a rotary shaft being located within the shaft passage. At least one annular laterally translatable seal carrier is provided. First and second annular resilient sealing elements are supported in axially spaced relation by the annular seal carriers and have sealing relation with the rotary shaft. The seal housing and at least one seal carrier define a first pressure staging chamber exposed to the first annular resilient sealing element and a second pressure staging chamber located between and exposed to the first and second annular resilient sealing elements. A first fluid is circulated to the first pressure chamber at a pressure P,, and a second staging pressure fluid is circulated to the second pressure chamber at a fraction of pressure P,to achieve pressure staging, cooling of the seals. Seal placement provides hydraulic force balancing of the annular seal carriers.

High pressure rotary shaft sealing mechanism

A hydrodynamically lubricated squeeze packing type rotary shaft with a cross-sectional geometry suitable for pressurized lubricant retention is provided which, in the preferred embodiment, incorporates a protuberant static sealing interface that, compared to prior art, dramatically improves the exclusionary action of the dynamic sealing interface in low pressure and unpressurized applications by achieving symmetrical deformation of the seal at the static and dynamic sealing interfaces. In abrasive environments, the improved exclusionary action results in a dramatic reduction of seal and shaft wear, compared to prior art, and provides a significant increase in seal life. The invention also increases seal life by making higher levels of initial compression possible, compared to prior art, without compromising hydrodynamic lubrication; this added compression makes the seal more tolerant of compression set, abrasive wear, mechanical misalignment, dynamic runout, and manufacturing tolerances, and also makes hydrodynamic seals with smaller cross-sections more practical. In alternate embodiments, the benefits enumerated above are achieved by cooperative configurations of the seal and the gland which achieve symmetrical deformation of the seal at the static and dynamic sealing interfaces. The seal may also be configured such that predetermined radial compression deforms it to a desired operative configuration, even through symmetrical deformation is lacking.

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Houston, TX, United States of America

Jeffrey D Gobeli