Kalsi Engineering, Inc.

Other

Acf Industries, Incorporated

Nl Industries

Gas Research Institute

Masx Energy Services Group, Inc.

Reed Tubular Products Co.

Empresas Lanzagorta, S.a. De C.v.

Manmohan Singh Kalsi

Lannie Laroy Dietle

Patricio Daniel Alvarez

Jeffrey D Gobeli

Zachary W Leutwyler

John Erick Schroeder

Patricio D Alvarez

William T Conroy

M Vikram Rao

Aaron Paul Richie

Jaw-Kuang Wang

Mital Chandrakant Mistry

Thomas Floyd Bailey

Michael Louis Larronde

Robert C Houlgrave

Larry F Moeller

Donna D Saunders

Gun-Shing Chen

Clemens L Horst

Dezso Somogyi

Lannie M Dietle

A passive thermal control valve comprising a thermal actuator coupled to a valve body having first and second ports. The thermal actuator including an actuator body having an inner bore. An adjustment stop engages the actuator body. A cylinder is received within the actuator body inner bore and the cylinder has a cylinder bore open at one end. An actuator spring within the actuator body biases the cylinder towards the adjustment stop. An actuator rod is at least partially received within the cylinder and has first and second ends. At least a portion of the actuator rod is allowed to extend through the open cylinder bore. A sealing element forms a seal between the actuator rod and the cylinder and defines a sealed chamber within the cylinder. A thermal fluid is contained within the cylinder. A lever mechanism is connected to the valve body and includes a lever having a first end connected to the valve body. A valve spool is connected to a lever second end. The valve spool is arranged and designed to close the first port and allow a system fluid to flow through the second port, close the second port and allow the system fluid to flow through the first port, or allow the system fluid to flow through both the first and second ports.

Miniature passive thermal control valve for mixing or splitting single-phase fluid with adjustable thermal actuator

A flow conditioning assembly comprising an integral elbow flow conditioner and a downstream flow conditioner. The elbow flow conditioner includes a pipe elbow with one or more flow conditioning elements. Each flow conditioning element includes one or more turning guides. Each turning guide is generally circular and radially spaced from one another and an inner surface of the elbow. Spaced vanes maintain the radial spacing of the turning guides. The vanes divide the radial space between the turning guides and pipe elbow into a plurality of flow channels that turn in generally the same direction as the inner surface of the pipe elbow. The downstream flow conditioner comprises a flow conditioning structure within a pipe element. The flow conditioning structure includes one or more flow guides of generally circular form radially spaced from one another and the pipe element. Spaced support vanes maintain the radial spacing of the flow guides.

Flow conditioning assembly

A rotary shaft sealing assembly in which a first fluid is partitioned from a second fluid in a housing assembly having a rotary shaft located at least partially within. In one embodiment a lip seal is lubricated and flushed with a pressure-generating seal ring preferably having an angled diverting feature. The pressure-generating seal ring and a hydrodynamic seal may be used to define a lubricant-filled region with each of the seals having hydrodynamic inlets facing the lubricant-filled region. Another aspect of the sealing assembly is having a seal to contain pressurized lubricant while withstanding high rotary speeds. Another rotary shaft sealing assembly embodiment includes a lubricant supply providing a lubricant at an elevated pressure to a region between a lip seal and a hydrodynamic seal with a flow control regulating the flow of lubricant past the lip seal. The hydrodynamic seal may include an energizer element having a modulus of elasticity greater than the modulus of elasticity of a sealing lip of the hydrodynamic seal.

Rotary shaft sealing assembly

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 rotary seal is provided that operates hydrodynamically in response to relative rotation even when subjected to exposure to a high fluid pressure from either side, and provides low breakout and running torque. A dynamic sealing lip having a wavy geometry provides hydrodynamic lubrication in response to relative rotation when little or no differential pressure is acting across the seal. When differential pressure exists, controlled fluid pressure-induced distortion results in a distorted dynamic sealing lip configuration that is suitable for hydrodynamic lubrication, regardless of which direction the differential pressure acts from.

Hydrodynamic rotary coupling seal

A load responsive hydrodynamic bearing is provided in the form of a thrust bearing or journal bearing for supporting, guiding and lubricating a relatively rotatable member to minimize wear thereof responsive to relative rotation under severe load. In the space between spaced relatively rotatable members and in the presence of a liquid or grease lubricant, one or more continuous ring shaped integral generally circular bearing bodies each define at least one dynamic surface and a plurality of support regions. Each of the support regions defines a static surface which is oriented in generally opposed relation with the dynamic surface for contact with one of the relatively rotatable members. A plurality of flexing regions are defined by the generally circular body of the bearing and are integral with and located between adjacent support regions. Each of the flexing regions has a first beam-like element being connected by an integral flexible hinge with one of the support regions and a second beam-like element having an integral flexible hinge connection with an adjacent support region. A least one local weakening geometry of the flexing region is located intermediate the first and second beam-like elements. In response to application of load from one of the relatively rotatable elements to the bearing, the beam-like elements and the local weakening geometry become flexed, causing the dynamic surface to deform and establish a hydrodynamic geometry for wedging lubricant into the dynamic interface.

Load responsive hydrodynamic bearing

A hydrodynamically lubricating seal has a generally circular seal body defining a static sealing surface and having a dynamic sealing lip projecting from the seal body and defining a dynamic sealing surface, a non-hydrodynamic edge and a non-circular angulated flank having a flank angle. The flank angle and the dynamic sealing surface have theoretical intersection being positioned from the non-hydrodynamic edge by a variable distance having a minimum dimension being greater than {fraction (1/16)} inch and also having a maximum dimension. The circular seal body defines a theoretical center-line and, when viewed in a longitudinal cross-section taken along the theoretical center-line, a hydrodynamic inlet curve is shown that blends the theoretical intersection between the flank angle and the dynamic sealing surface. This hydrodynamic inlet curve is tangent to the dynamic sealing surface at a location of tangency and has a rate of curvature less than the rate of curvature of a &frac18; inch radius.

Hydrodynamic seal with improved extrusion abrasion and twist resistance

A wedge gate valve having a valve body defining a valve chamber and flow passages and upwardly diverging circular seat surfaces of circular, flat configuration and defining seat planes. A valve disk or wedge having downwardly converging sealing surfaces is movable within said valve chamber between open and closed positions for controlling flow through the valve. Pressure boundary plates connected by hubs to the valve disk define the sealing surfaces of the disk and have bottom corners that establish line contact with the downstream seat surface and prevent any portion of said sealing surfaces of said valve disk from crossing the sealing plane of the downstream seat in the event of flow responsive downstream movement of the valve disk during its opening and closing movement. Guide ears of the disk are provided with flexible upper and lower extremities and rounded or chamfered inner end surfaces to minimize localized peak contact stress with disk guide rails of the valve body. The center section of the disk is rendered flexible by the provision of an internal transverse cavity that extends completely through the center section or is located centrally of the center section to define flexible walls between the hubs to thus provide for disk flexibility for overcoming the tendency for disk binding. A valve actuator for opening and closing the valve disk is provided with an adjustable downstop to prevent overtravel of the disk during seating.

Flexible wedge gate valve

A hydrodynamically lubricated rotary seal or packing assembly which provides environmental exclusion, lubricant retention and hydrodynamic interfacial lubrication in applications where the environment pressure may be higher than the lubricant pressure. The invention is particularly suitable for oilfield drilling swivels 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 which is filled with abrasive-laden liquids, mixtures or slurries. The invention provides a unique sealing mechanism which controls high pressure abrasive fluids, and which accomplishes hydrodynamic lubricant pumping activity to maintain efficient lubrication at the dynamic sealing interfaces thereof to thus significantly enhance service life. The invention provides a non-circular support surface which efficiently supports the non-circular flank of a hydrodynamic rotary sealing element against environmental pressure, thereby maintaining the integrity of the non-circular lubricant edge and the abrupt circular environment edge of the sealing element.

Hydrodynamic packing assembly

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

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Manmohan Singh Kalsi