Annular Seal Lip Structure for Stable Surface Pressure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sealing devices face challenges in maintaining desired surface pressure due to positional variations of components, leading to inconsistent sealing performance whether the squeeze of the side lip portion is small or large.
Innovation Solution
A sealing device featuring an elastic body with a seal lip portion, a flange portion, a side lip portion, and a projecting portion that adjusts contact points based on the gap between components to ensure consistent surface pressure and sealing performance across varying positional variations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a new lip portion is added to integrate sealing functions, then the number of components is reduced, but the surface pressure becomes inconsistent due to positional variations of the counterpart component
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic body is divided into multiple functional portions: a seal lip portion for sealing the annular gap, a side lip portion for contacting the counterpart component, and a flange portion with a pressing portion. This segmentation allows each portion to perform its specific function independently, ensuring reliable sealing even when the counterpart component has positional variations.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the elastic body have different structural characteristics optimized for their specific functions. The seal lip portion has a specific shape for gap sealing, the side lip portion has a pressing portion for surface pressure generation, and the flange portion provides structural support. This local quality differentiation ensures that each area performs optimally despite positional variations.
2Reliability
If the squeeze of the side lip portion is made large to ensure sealing, then the contact area increases, but the desired surface pressure cannot be obtained
Solution Approach 1:
The side lip portion is designed with a localized pressing portion that concentrates the squeezing force onto a specific contact area with the counterpart component. This localized pressure application ensures that sufficient surface pressure is generated at the critical sealing interface without requiring excessive overall squeeze of the entire side lip portion.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastic body is pre-compressed during installation, creating initial contact between the side lip portion and the counterpart component. This preliminary compression ensures that as the counterpart component moves within its positional variation range, the elastic body continuously maintains the necessary surface pressure through its elastic recovery.
3Stress or pressure
If the squeeze of the side lip portion is made small to maintain surface pressure, then the contact area decreases, but sealing performance deteriorates when positional variation occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The side lip portion is designed to dynamically adapt its contact area with the counterpart component based on the actual gap and positional variation. When the gap is small, the contact area is naturally limited maintaining surface pressure. When the gap increases due to positional variation, the elastic body deforms to increase the contact area, ensuring continuous sealing performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastic body's compression ratio and material properties are specifically selected to allow the side lip portion to change its deformation state based on the gap size. This parameter optimization ensures that the side lip portion maintains appropriate surface pressure across varying gap conditions without requiring excessive squeeze in any single condition.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively reduces the number of components while ensuring reliable sealing performance by achieving desired surface pressure in both small and large squeeze scenarios, maintaining effective sealing regardless of positional variations.
Implementation Method 1
a sealing device includes an elastic body that seals an annular gap between an inner member and an outer member
Data Source
AI summary
An elastic body includes an annular main body portion to be disposed in an annular gap, a seal lip portion extending from a portion, closer to an object to be sealed, of the main body portion and being to be in contact with an inner member, a flange portion extending outwardly from an end, opposite to the object to be sealed, of the main body portion and including a first side closer to the object to be sealed, the first side being to be in contact with an outer member, a side lip portion extending from the end opposite to the object to be sealed in a direction away from the object to be sealed, and a projecting portion formed circumferentially on a second side, opposite to the object to be sealed, of the flange portion. The side lip portion has a back surface configured to be in contact with the projecting portion in response to the side lip portion being pressed by a mating member disposed opposite to the object to be sealed.