Press-Seal Gasket Corporation

Myron S Worley

Katherine A Bergfeld

Andrew J Happel

A one-piece seal is used between the rear doors of a semi-trailer truck and the rear frame of the truck, the seal having a good compression set resistance. The seal is made from multiple extrusion members that are fused, welded, or otherwise integrally, monolithically connected at corner joints to form a central opening. The extrusion members have a sealing profile, or cross-section, that allows for the compression and deflection of a pair of sealing lobes to create inner and outer seals, respectively, between the trailer frame and the door structure at the rear of a semi-trailer truck, as well as between the doors themselves.

Trailer door seal

An expansion ring assembly seals a gasket with respect to an annular wall of a rigid structure. The expansion ring assembly includes two arcuate expansion ring bands that cooperate to define a generally circular profile. At one side of the expansion ring assembly, a first pair of ends of the expansion ring bands overlap and include a ratcheting mechanism which allows the ring to incrementally expand but not to contract. At another location of the expansion ring assembly, a second pair of ends are joined by a drive mechanism for engaging and driving apart the opposing ends of an expansion ring to thereby non-incrementally expand the ring. The ratchet mechanism may be used to initially set and hold the expansion ring against a gasket in a desired position and to provide an initial expansion pressure, i.e., for a coarse adjustment. The drive mechanism may then be used to provide a final expansion pressure of the gasket, i.e., for a fine adjustment. Advantageously, the coarse adjustment followed by the final adjustment allows a user to quickly and precisely achieve a desired gasket pressure by manipulating the torque applied to the drive mechanism.

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Middlebury, IN, United States of America

Myron S Worley