Seal Element With Three Sealing Lips for Vehicle Body Tightness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sealing elements for vehicle body openings face challenges in maintaining reliable tightness under mechanical stresses such as vibrations and external pressures, requiring enhanced sealing capabilities from both the outside and inside.
Innovation Solution
A sealing element with a base body, an outer circumferential sealing lip, an inner circumferential sealing lip, and a third sealing lip that enhances tightness by being supported by the outer lip, ensuring increased sealing efficacy under various loads, with the outer lip conically widening and the inner lip conically narrowing to accommodate radial deformation and pressure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single sealing lip is used, then the structure is simple, but the tightness under mechanical stresses is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing element is divided into three distinct sealing lips (outer, intermediate, and inner sealing lips) that are integrated into a single base body. Each sealing lip serves a specific sealing function at different locations, providing multiple sealing barriers against mechanical stresses, vibrations, and pressure differentials while maintaining structural integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing lips are arranged in different radial dimensions (outer, intermediate, inner) extending from the base body, creating a multi-layered sealing approach. This dimensional arrangement allows the sealing element to address tightness requirements from multiple spatial perspectives simultaneously, enhancing reliability without requiring separate components.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the sealing lip wall thickness is constant, then the manufacturing is simple, but the flexibility and stability are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing lips feature variable wall thickness with thicker sections at the base body providing stability and support, and thinner sections at the free ends providing flexibility for radial deformation. This local variation in wall thickness optimizes both structural stability and manufacturing feasibility by concentrating material where needed for support while reducing material where flexibility is required.
3Reliability
If the outer sealing lip is made flexible to seal against surface irregularities, then the sealing performance improves, but the supporting force decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing element separates the functions of support and sealing by dividing the sealing lips into distinct sections. The base body and proximal sections provide structural support and pretension, while the distal free ends of each sealing lip provide flexibility for conforming to surface irregularities. This segmentation allows each section to optimize its specific function without compromising the other.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the sealing lips have different wall thicknesses: thicker sections near the base body provide the supporting force and structural integrity, while thinner sections at the free ends provide the flexibility needed for sealing against surface irregularities. This local quality variation resolves the contradiction between flexibility and supporting force.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the inner sealing lip is made thin to allow radial deformation, then the flexibility improves, but the stability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The inner sealing lip features variable wall thickness with a thinner distal section that provides flexibility for radial deformation and conforming to internal surfaces, and a thicker proximal section near the base body that provides structural stability and support. This local quality variation allows the inner sealing lip to achieve both flexibility and stability simultaneously.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The element has a base body (12) connected to an opening of a component, and a sealing unit (20) arranged in the base body. The sealing unit includes an outer rotatable sealing lip and an inner rotatable sealing lip, and a sealing lip is arranged on the outer rotatable sealing lip, so that the sealing lip lies between the outer rotatable sealing lip and inner rotatable sealing lip. Diameter of the outer and inner rotatable sealing lips at a free end is smaller than that of the base body, and the sealing unit is injected into the base body.