The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 22, 1998
Filed:
Jul. 21, 1997
M Lalith Kumar, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Other;
Abstract
The present invention is a pressure vessel device. The device is comprised of a vessel body having an open end. The device also comprises an end cap disposed on the open end of the body. A self-energizing seal is disposed between the end cap and the vessel body to seal them together. Preferably, the seal consists of a C-shaped polymeric body with a stainless steel spring or an O-ring in the middle. The spring pushes two lips of the seal out. One lip of the seal touches the body of the vessel and the other lip of the seal touches the cap. When the pressure inside the vessel increases, it acts against the seal and pushes the lips even further towards the wall. In order to eliminate bolts, the cap can be threaded to the vessel body. The threads provide an additional bonus in that a simpler motor mechanism can feed the cap into the vessel thereby providing an automated method of opening and closing the vessel. This simple automation provides considerable amount of safety to the operator. A seal retainer can be used to hold the seal from moving. The seal retainer can be designed to do more than one function. For example, it can be designed to hold a frit to retain any solids from entraining, act as a flow distributor and hold the seal in the right place.