Floating Labyrinth Shaft Seal for Misalignment Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing shaft seal technologies fail to effectively maintain sealing integrity during angular and radial misalignment of shafts, leading to potential contamination and lubricant loss.
Innovation Solution
The shaft seal assembly employs a labyrinth seal with a floating stator and anti-rotation pins, allowing for angular misalignment while maintaining sealing integrity through a spherical interface and o-ring channels, and includes a pressure-balanced design to manage axial forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional shaft seal is used, then sealing is effective under aligned conditions, but sealing integrity fails during angular and radial misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The stator is designed to float and move dynamically in response to shaft misalignment rather than being rigidly fixed. This allows the seal to adapt its position to maintain sealing contact during angular and radial misalignment while preserving sealing integrity
Solution Approach 2:
The seal assembly is divided into a fixed stator and a floating stator, allowing independent movement of each component. The floating stator can adjust position relative to the fixed stator to accommodate misalignment while maintaining the sealing barrier
2Stability of the object's composition
If a rigid fixed stator is used, then structural stability is high, but the seal cannot accommodate shaft misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The stator is segmented into fixed and floating portions, allowing the fixed stator to provide structural stability while the floating stator provides misalignment accommodation through controlled movement
Solution Approach 2:
The floating stator introduces dynamic movement capability to an otherwise static seal structure, enabling the system to maintain stability through the fixed portion while adapting to misalignment through the movable portion
Data Source
AI summary
An illustrative embodiment of a shaft seal assembly generally includes a fixed stator, a floating stator, and a sealing member. In the illustrative embodiment the fixed stator may be formed with one or more fluid conduits that are in fluid communication with one or fluid conduits formed in the floating stator. The fluid conduits in the floating stator may be in fluid communication with one or more fluid conduits formed in a sealing member. A rotational interface may exist between the sealing member and a shaft, and the various fluid conduits may be configured to create a fluid barrier at that interface. Other embodiments of a shaft seal assembly may create a fluid barrier at a rotational interface between a rotor and a floating stator.