Pump Outlet Spring Gasket for Tolerance-Compensating Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pump technologies face challenges in maintaining a reliable and cost-effective seal due to component tolerances, installation tolerances, temperature-induced changes, and pressure-induced movements, often requiring high surface compression and being prone to gap extrusion and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
A pump design incorporating a spring gasket, such as a disc spring or annular hollow-profile spring, that fully surrounds the outlet to provide a static seal, compensating for geometric changes and tolerances, and optionally combined with additional gaskets like bead gaskets, to ensure a consistent sealing action across the pump's operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If soft material gaskets or elastomer gaskets are used to seal the pump, then the sealing action can accommodate dimensional tolerances and geometric changes, but high surface compression is required which leads to increased cost and risk of gap extrusion under high pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter from soft elastomer to rigid metal spring material, fundamentally altering how the gasket achieves sealing. Instead of relying on material elasticity and high compression, the spring gasket uses elastic deformation of metal under load to maintain sealing pressure without requiring excessively high surface compression, thereby reducing gap extrusion risk while maintaining reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The spring gasket combines metal material properties (elasticity, strength) with a gasket function, creating a composite solution that neither pure elastomer nor pure rigid metal could achieve alone. This composite approach allows the gasket to withstand high pressures without extrusion while maintaining sealing effectiveness through controlled elastic deformation
2Reliability
If high surface compression is applied to ensure sealing under tolerances and temperature changes, then the seal remains reliable, but the cost increases and the risk of gap extrusion under high pressure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the compression parameter from extremely high (required for soft gaskets) to moderate levels. The spring gasket's elastic properties allow it to maintain sealing pressure through controlled deformation rather than requiring excessive compression, reducing manufacturing costs while ensuring sealing consistency across temperature and tolerance variations
3Adaptability or versatility
If soft material gaskets are used to compensate for dimensional tolerances and installation tolerances, then the seal adapts to geometric changes, but the sealing action becomes less stable under pulses and high pressures
Solution Approach 1:
The spring gasket combines the adaptability of elastic materials with the stability of rigid metal. The metal spring can deform to accommodate tolerances and geometric changes while maintaining structural stability under pulses and high pressures, unlike soft elastomer gaskets that may deform excessively or fail under such conditions
4Reliability
If multiple gaskets are used to ensure sealing (radial gasket and outlet gasket), then the sealing coverage is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functions of multiple separate gaskets (radial gasket and outlet gasket) into a single spring gasket component. This unified spring gasket simultaneously provides radial sealing and outlet sealing functions, reducing device complexity while maintaining comprehensive sealing coverage through its elastic deformation capabilities
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 spring gasket solution provides a cost-effective and reliable sealing mechanism that maintains fluid-tight pressure contact, compensates for mechanical and thermal stresses, and reduces the risk of gap extrusion, thereby enhancing the pump's operational stability and reducing costs.
Implementation Method 1
A spring device which is arranged between the base of the accommodating well and the pump insert tenses the pump insert axially against the cover. The pump insert can be axially moved to a minor extent relative to the accommodating device, against the force of the spring device, such that dimensional tolerances and changes in geometry can be compensated for.
Implementation Method 2
The invention relates to a pump for supplying an assembly, for example a gearbox or engine, with fluid... an axial gasket which completely surrounds the outlet in an axial view onto the end-facing wall of the housing... The spring gasket solution provides a cost-effective and reliable sealing mechanism that maintains fluid-tight pressure contact, compensates for mechanical and thermal stresses, and reduces the risk of gap extrusion
Data Source
AI summary
A pump for applying fluid to an assembly, the pump including: a pump housing featuring a circumferential wall surrounding a delivery chamber of the pump, an end-facing housing wall including an outer end-facing surface of the housing which faces axially away from the delivery chamber, an inlet and an outlet for the fluid which emerges on the outer end-facing surface of the housing; a delivery member, moveable within the delivery chamber, for delivering the fluid from a low-pressure side of the pump which includes the inlet to a high-pressure side of the pump which includes the outlet; and an axial gasket which fully surrounds the outlet, in order to separate it from the low-pressure side, in an axial view onto the end-facing wall of the housing. The axial gasket is a spring gasket in the form of a disc spring or hollow-profile spring or V-profile spring or bellows spring.