• 专利附录
  • 专利说明
  • 权利要求
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    • 专利摘要:
    aerostatic bearing for use as a seal in order to make a seal, a porous material, comprising one side of two opposing surfaces, is used to evenly restrict and distribute gas, liquid, vapor, etc. pressurized externally, between two surfaces, imparting a force that is opposite to the forces of pressure differences or springs that are trying to join the two faces and can thus create a non-contact seal that is more stable and reliable than the hydrodynamic seals currently in use .
    公开号:BR112014016605B1
    申请号:R112014016605-6
    申请日:2013-01-03
    公开日:2021-06-29
    发明作者:Andrew Devitt
    申请人:New Way Machine Components, Inc；
    IPC主号:
    专利说明:

    REFERENCE TO RELATED ORDERS
    [0001] The present invention claims priority to US Provisional Applications No. 61/582,674, filed January 3, 2012; No. 61/704,927, filed on September 24, 2012; and No. 61/728,595, filed on November 20, 2012, the contents of which are herein fully incorporated by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
    [0002] The present invention relates to a seal and/or seal and more particularly to a seal to be used in fields such as the following: oil and gas, power generation (including energy storage such as compressed air or reversible hydropower plant), wind turbines, chemical processing, paper manufacturing, air and water purification, gas separation and other industrial processes. Among these types of industries, this technology is very likely to be of use to: pumps, compressors, turbines, generators, engines, turboexpanders, turbos, mixers and purifiers. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
    [0003] Creating and implementing effective seals for rotating equipment has been challenging since the advent of rotating equipment. And just as there are all sorts of applications and types of rotating equipment, there is also a vast amount of seals that are employed in this type of equipment.
    [0004] One of the simplest and oldest methods of sealing, the use of gaskets, is still frequently used. In this type of seal, a gasket can be fitted to compress the O-ring around the shaft. Thus, there is a balance between how tight the O-ring should be which can cause friction and wear damage to the shaft and how effective the seal is. The lip seal is another type of contact seal. Such seals may also have grooves in the shaft and are subject to wear and leakage. Labyrinth seals are a type of non-contact seal, but they provide a conductance path that can result in huge flows when there are significant pressure differentials in the seal. In order to minimize leakage, the gaps between rotations in stationary sections of the seal are minimized as much as possible. This increases costs significantly and, moreover, to make them effective they generally need to be axially long. There are other types of seals such as adaptive seals and the sealing brush, which are contact seals and generally employ centrifugal force or pressure differences to hold them together with their mating contact surfaces. Such seals create particulate material and are a wear factor that increases maintenance costs and, at high speeds, generate considerable amounts of heat and frictional wear. Additionally, these contact seals produce a lot of noise. Bearing insulators are commonly found in process equipment, they generally combine labyrinth seals and lip seal technologies and sometimes employ the injection of a liquid or gas at a pressure higher than that of the volume to be sealed. An example of such a technique is US Patent 7,631,878 to Orlowski.
    [0005] Mechanical seals and dry gas seals can also be considered as injection type seals, as these seals often use some type of exhaust gas or seal. Dry gas seals specifically use hydrodynamic bearing effects to create very small non-contact openings that are very effective in sealing. Since the sealing effects are dependent on them and the air bearing being blindfolded only works at relatively high surface speeds between sealing faces. There is a great deal of technology being used in seals to keep their seal faces flat and pressed against each other in order to avoid a loss of contact due to the speed between the seal faces or a seal failure due to a failure mechanism that is used to provide axial flexibility (“Hang Up”) allowing a large gap to be created between the sealing faces. Mechanical seals also have the same problems, but their seal faces are designed to be relatively good parts of plain bearings, yet because they are generally contact seals they wear out and generate heat. An example of this type of seal is the US patent US 7,823, 885 by Droscher, which describes very well the problems with conventional seals and "hang ups" and is also an example of a type of conventional injection seal, additionally, it is said that this injection fluid can also help establish properties of an aerodynamic bearing on the seal face.
    [0006] The state of the art currently includes hydrodynamic bearings such as the helical groove type bearing and the blade bearing, which can become non-contact type bearings based on the passage of a fluid or gas through an opening, there are seals of the labyrinth type and dry gas seals that try to create a restriction through small openings. Examples of dry gas seals include seals from Pall Corporation and Carbone Turbograph. In the case of Carbone, they manufacture porous media carbons and graphites, but they do not employ porous media or graphites as a offset technique for hydrostatic sealing purposes. So we assume this is evidence that using such porous media compensation techniques is not obvious to them.
    [0007] In another current example, the US patent application published under No. US 2006/006-2499 A1, which specifically teaches and claims the use of graphite and ceramic materials and the use of compressed gas, does not employ compensation through means porous. This patent is specifically directed at high speed turbine engines. We assume this is an example that the use of porous compensation is not obvious. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
    [0008] The objectives of the invention include: providing more effective mechanical seal surfaces and dry gas seals by revealing robust ways to employ external compressed air bearing technology to create high pressures in non-contact seal openings; prevent or reduce wear and heat build-up between faces that must come into contact or may occasionally come into contact; reveal how the combination of sealing and bearing technologies can surprisingly simplify the sealing of rotating equipment and prevent “hang ups”, which are compensating system locks to keep the faces pressed together.
    [0009] The modern aerostatic bearing technology when applied in turbo equipment presents very interesting applications in the replacement of conventional bearings and seals (eliminating oil, improving efficiency and reducing noise).
    [0010] Seals and counterfaces designed to use one of the two opposing seal faces as a porous medium to restrict external hydrostatic pressure from entering an opening between the bearing faces. This technology would serve to replace the gasket in large agitators, mixers or scrubbers at the lower end of the above seal continuation and at the upper end of mechanical seals or dry gas seals. One configuration is the blade slide, which lends itself particularly well to sealing aircraft engines by allowing for an enormous reduction in friction, wear and noise with an improved step seal. Additionally, the rotational mass and axial length of the seal are greatly reduced. Another mode of execution revealed is the face seal with force balance where the faces of the mechanical seals would come into contact with virtually no contact force, even though there is a thousand kilograms of closing force.
    [0011] External compressed gas bearings have many fundamental advantages for use as seals:
    [0012] They are non-contact and operate independently of relative movement (they work with zero RPM)
    [0013] They do this using process gas to seal the opening
    [0014] Operate under the most extreme temperatures
    [0015] Use high pressures but low flows
    [0016] Combine sealing and bearing functionalities
    [0017] As they are non-contact seals, they do not have any Coulomb of friction and do not wear out. There is a tiny viscous friction in the laminar air film, but the order of magnitude of this is less than the friction in the bearing. This bodes well for the reduction of energy consumption and represents a strong argument for selling it as something environmentally responsible. Radial, axial or face seals both possible.
    [0018] Although they are non-contact seals they are mechanically coupled to their opposite surfaces by means of the compression of the laminar air film. As in the example in figure 350, the sealing brush is supported by the rotating shaft it is sealing. This allows for the elimination of alignment problems such as those found with labyrinth seals. This is the self-alignment capability. The seal is stationary with respect to the stator and connected to it through some type of flexible bellows seal, an O-ring or diaphragm as examples of flexible assemblies. These bearing isolators can be found on GGB, Waukesha and Crane, which are examples of other flexible assemblies that allow for shaft center shifting as well as shaft angular shifts. The bearing insulators mentioned above utilize large amounts of compressed air or fluid injection into an opening as they do not employ hydrostatic compensated bearing technology.
    [0019] The high pressure maintained in the air opening works as a highly effective seal against the migration of contamination, liquids and even gases. Conventional labyrinth and gas seals that employ pressure flowing into one or more grooves have the disadvantage of relatively low pressure (some PSI) and high flow (tens of cubic feet per minute). However, an aerostatic bearing seal can easily generate 30 PSI at the opening and flow is measured in cubic feet per hour. An example of this type of bearing in a pressure surface type configuration is our standard range of preloaded aerostatic vacuum bearings. It's counterintuitive, but we've successfully used 30 PSI in an annular air gap to separate atmospheric pressure from vacuum which is used to preload the laminar air film in light loading precision stages.
    [0020] "Aerostatic bearings have application in a wide variety of categories in sealing technology, but they are not (yet) commonly employed."
    [0021] Although porous medium aerostatic bearings are not new and the idea of hydrostatic seals is not new either, there is very little in the state of the art and even less in practice, in which the advantages of both ideas are combined.
    [0022] Aerostatic bearings such as seals and bearings have the potential to revolutionize the fundamental design of turbo equipment.
    [0023] Porous hydrostatic seals are not difficult to manufacture. A layer of porous media generally between 0.020 and 0.2 inches [about 0.508 and 5.08 millimeters] thick, shrunk to fit and/or glued to a non-porous casing with an air distribution labyrinth between the two layers and a perforation finish on the porous medium surface of the appropriate diameter for the trunnion or else a flat finish for the pressing surface is all that is required. Generally the air openings are between 0.0001” and 0.001” [about 0.0025 mm and 0.025 mm] with the absolute energy [sheer energy] and the flow through the opening being both square and cubic functions of the opening. Flow through the porous medium is determined by the desired flow through the opening and is generally about twice the desired flow with the shaft or pressure surface in place. As shaft speed increases, the ideal opening thickness must also increase in order to minimize heat build-up through absolute energy losses. The equations used to determine this are generally known from the prior art.
    [0024] The modern technology of aerostatic bearings when applied in turbo equipment has very interesting applications in replacing conventional bearings and seals (eliminating oil, and improving efficiency). The description that follows reveals this through various modes of execution.
    [0025] In order to perform a seal, a porous material, comprising one side of two opposing surfaces, is used to uniformly restrict and distribute gas, liquid, vapor, etc. externally pressurized between the two surfaces, imparting a force that is opposite to the forces of pressure differences or springs that are trying to join the two faces and can thus create a non-contact seal that is more stable and reliable than the hydrodynamic seals currently in use. Aerostatic pressure can be adjusted to the point where the two faces are completely discharged and with zero contact pressure between the two faces even though the faces are in very close contact. Because the faces are in contact, there is approximately zero flow through the opening and there will be the pressure line being fed to the porous material between the two faces. This contact force can be easily adjusted by varying the inlet pressure to reduce wear and heat generated by friction in conventional contact seals. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
    [0026] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be presented in greater detail with reference to the drawings, in which:
    [0027] 1A - Simplified One-Sided Dry Gas Seal
    [0028] 1B - Flexible Single-Sided Rotation Element
    [0029] 1C - State of the art image without description
    [0030] 1D - Tandem face mechanical seal in preferred execution mode
    [0031] 1E - Flexible stationary primer with adjustable air closing force
    [0032] 1F - Flexible stationary primer with mechanical closing force only
    [0033] 1G - Flexible stationary primer with toroid
    [0034] 2A - Double Opposite Simplified Dry Gas Seal
    [0035] 2B - Flexible rotation element with double opposite preference
    [0036] From 2C-1 to 2C-4 - dry gas seals porous versus hydrodynamic
    [0037] 2D - Lift load graph for porous aerostatic seals
    [0038] 3A - Circumferential gas dry seal
    [0039] 3B - Mounting method for circumferential seal
    [0040] 4 - Single Blade Seal
    [0041] 5A - Detailed description of the state of the art
    [0042] 5B - Dry gas seals that eliminate seals, preferred execution mode
    [0043] 6A - Multi-blade seal
    [0044] 6B - Parallel bending, aerial engines
    [0045] 6C - Approximate view of parallel bending
    [0046] 7A and 7B - Angular seal compensation
    [0047] 7C - Angular and axial seal compensation
    [0048] 8 - Angular, axial and radial seal compensation without air outlet
    [0049] 9 - Radial Angular Axial Single Source
    [0050] 10 - Radial Angular Axial with air outlet
    [0051] 11A - Balanced force seal design
    [0052] 11B - Example of a balanced force seal
    [0053] 12 - Method for making seals with wide temperature capacity DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EXECUTION MODES
    [0054] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in greater detail with reference to the drawings, in which each similar reference numeral refers to similar elements in all embodiments.
    [0055] Referring to Figure 1A; a shaft 101 which is rotatable at high speed has a slide 110 coupled to the shaft by means of an O-ring 111 (or other mounting mechanism as described in Figure 1B or other configurations detailed herein or known in the art). O-rings provide axial compensation to the slide allowing self-adjustment of the gap between the slide and the fixed face and axial displacements of the shaft. If the slide is snugly mounted on the shaft, some axial compensation will have to be projected onto the fixed components. The slide is free to move radially over the air film. Conventional mechanical seals as shown in figure 1B generally have a spring loading mechanism to force the opposite faces of the seal into contact. This technique is well known in the art and can be employed to adjust the load on the seal faces and provide axial compensation. The numeral 103 represents the volume on one side of the seal, which could be a gearbox housing, a motive generation housing, or a process fluid or gas such as a mixer, purifier, a water pump, or a pipeline compressor. gas, or a seal between compartments in a part of a rotating equipment, as examples. The numeral 104 would represent the box or casing. There may or may not be an adapter plate as shown by 205 in figure 2A. The seal body 109 itself would possibly be mounted on the housing or adapter plate with the seal O-ring 105. The seal body in figure 1A refers to a seal that would be light loaded, it should be noted that the seal body seal and its mounting need to be sufficiently rigid so that it does not perform significantly under the pressure differences being sealed. The seal body is equipped with conduction passages 106 to communicate the pressurized fluid to the labyrinth 108, which uniformly distributes the pressurized fluid in the rear portion of the porous medium 107. The porous medium 102 may consist of graphite, carbon, silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, aluminum oxide or basically any porous or sintered material. These materials are typically found as face seals and mechanical seals and as slides and slide faces in dry gas seals. Instead of just filling or sealing this porosity, porosity is used as an aerostatic bearing function. The compensation of aerostatic bearing with porous media is only a potential solution, compensation by hole, step, groove, inherent or by pocket, among other compensation techniques known in the prior art can be employed. Porous bearings are known from the state of the art and have been described by the inventor in other patent applications. Furthermore, methods for providing clean fluids under pressure are well known and readily available. At 100B, the difference from 180 is that the shaft 101 is equipped with a sleeve 112 which is fixed to the shaft and a spring element 113 acts on the corresponding slide or ring against the porous face of the seal and/or the primary ring.
    [0056] The size of the opening is a function of the hydrostatic inlet pressure, the forces that impel the faces to join (from pressure differences, spring forces, dynamic forces, etc.), the restriction of the porous medium and the ratio of the surface area to the leak edge of the surfaces. These variables can be controlled to create highly effective non-contact seals.
    [0057] With reference to figure 1C; a shaft 151 for a part of rotating equipment such as a compressor or a turbine is enveloped with a sleeve and a mating ring 152 which cooperates with a primary ring 150. The compressor housing 153 receives the cartridge seal 159 as is common. in the art and detailed by API norm 682. The porous face 154 of the primary ring, which does not rotate, receives pressure through the cartridge seal. When the primary ring is configured to be a “flexible element”, that pressure may be introduced through an orifice 155 into a chamber 157, which is sealed with O-rings 156, as also described in illustration 160, 170, 180 or with a method known in the art, including a tube that would be screwed directly into the primary ring (not shown here, but see illustration 350). An elastic force that keeps the primary ring of the aerostatic bearing pressed against its corresponding ring in rotation is applied through a spring 158 or a diaphragm-type bending, which is known from the state of the art, and/or methods using atmospheric pressure, among of which, two will be described below. In a tandem seal, the same description is repeated for the secondary seal.
    [0058] In Figure 1D, a primary ring 169 with a porous face 160 and a chamber for distributing atmospheric pressure behind the porous face 161 is contained within a cartridge seal by O-ring 162. the orifice 165 distributes air from the chamber 167 where pressure is introduced through orifice 168. Numeral 166 is a spring or diaphragm that provides an elastic force that pushes the primary ring against its corresponding ring. It is desirable that the primary ring is always pushed against its mating ring to prevent potential leakage. A seal hang up happens when the compensation ring is not pushed forcefully against its corresponding ring for some reason. This allows for unwanted backflows. In order to avoid “hang ups”, the atmospheric pressure being supplied to the seal face can also be used in the rear portion, in this case, of the primary ring. Diameter differences between 163 and 164 can be designed to maintain the desired closing forces between the sealing faces. Thus, as the pressure drop across the porous medium is likely to be on the order of 50% if the area described at the diameter of 164 is equal to 50% of the area at the seal face, the forces would be equal. This does not take into account forces arising from other pressure differences or from compensation springs or bending, which must also be considered and designed as a technician in the field would do very well.
    [0059] In Figure 1E, a primary ring 179 with a porous face 170 and a chamber for distributing atmospheric pressure behind the porous face 171 is compressed between O-rings 172 within the cartridge seal. The atmospheric pressure input for seal operation through port 178 is led to port 175 before reaching chamber 171. Output 173 is used to ensure that the pressure destined for the seal face is isolated by exerting a force on the rear portion of the primary ring. In this way, only spring or diaphragm forces will push the ring towards the corresponding ring.
    [0060] Figure 1F shows a primary ring 189 with a porous face 180 and a chamber for distributing air behind the porous face 181 and is compressed into the cartridge seal by means of an Oring ring 182 and a toroid 183 (a segment of a ball or a constant diameter curve) cooperates with a tight fit within the diameter of the cartridge seal 184. Atmospheric pressure for the seal is introduced through port 188 and communicates with port 185 through chamber 187 and through labyrinth 181 and then to the porous medium 180.
    [0061] As shown in Figure 2A, a shaft that can rotate at high speed 201 has a slide 214 coupled to it by means of an O-ring 211, O-rings or other mounting mechanisms as described in the other accompanying figures . O-rings provide axial compensation to the slide to allow it to find the center between the seal faces and provide small axial displacements of the shaft. If the slide is mounted securely to the shaft, some axial compensation needs to be projected onto the stationary components. The slide is free to move radially between the air films. The numeral 202 represents a volume on one side of the seal, which could be a gearbox housing, a motive generation housing, a gas or process fluid such as a mixer, purifier, a water pump, or a pipeline compressor. gas, as examples. The numeral 203 would represent the box or casing. Numeral 205 illustrates that there may be an adapter plate that would employ a stationary O-ring type seal 204. The ground body itself mounts to the housing or adapter plate as shown including a possible O-ring type seal 206 on that interface. The seal itself comprises two rings 213 and 216 with opposing, annular sealing faces 212. The rings are separated by a spacer 215, which has axial dimensions similar to slide 214. The spacer also provides an outlet or flow 208 to the atmosphere to that pressure does not build up in volume between the pressure surfaces 209. The spacer may be slightly larger than the slide or slightly smaller than the slide depending on the design goals. A larger spacer would allow for greater clearance, a smaller spacer would provide clamping functionality if there is a loss of hydrostatic pressure, in which case, and with the slide fixed to the shaft, the seal would act as a conventional contact seal. Rings 216 and 213, which are made of non-porous material or are sealed with the exception of the desired sealing faces, provide the conductivity of the hydrostatic fluid through port 207 and a labyrinth 210 to uniformly distribute said fluid in the back of the medium. porous or an area close to the desired faces. Porous medium 212 can consist of graphite, carbon, silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, or basically any sintered material. These materials are commonly found as face seals and mechanical seals and as slides and faces of dry gas seals and slides. Instead of just filling or sealing this porosity, it is used for aerostatic bearing functionality. The compensation of aerostatic bearing with porous media is only one potential solution, compensation by hole, step, groove, inherent or pocket, among other compensation techniques known in the prior art can be employed. Porous aerostatic seals are known in the art and are described by the inventor in earlier applications. Methods for providing clean fluids under pressure are also well known and readily available.
    [0062] In Figure 2B, the shaft 221 for a part of a turbo equipment has a cartridge seal 222, and inside the cartridge there is a corresponding ring 223 which, in this case, is a flexible rotating element. The matching ring as shown is an integral part of a glove, but the glove and the ring can be separate components. The mating ring with a sleeve is supported axially on the shaft by means of Springs 232 and the mating rings 223 and 233 are locked together by means of the clamping ring 237. The mating ring 223 is disposed against a stationary primary ring 229 which , in this preferred embodiment, has a porous seal face 224 and the required labyrinth 226 and an inlet port 227 to create an effective hydrostatic opening using the porous medium 225 as the restriction element. In this embodiment, as an example of a double seal, there is a corresponding second ring 233 and a second primary ring face 230 on the opposite side to 229 of the other face of the bearing primary ring. Both bearing systems receive external pressure and are vented using the same systems and ports. The volume between seal faces 224 and 230 is vented through port 228, preventing pressure build-up in this region. The same happens with the faces of seals 230 and 231, which are also vented. It should be noted that some of the flow out of seal opening 224 will flow to the process side. The amount will depend on pressure differences. Thus, if volume 234 is pressurized to 1000 PSI and the flow exiting the outlet is at ambient pressure, most of the flow will exit the outlet rather than entering the process. The pressure supply for porous medium 225 should be 4 to 6 bar above the pressure it is sealing, thus 1,060 to 1,090 PSI. It is obviously possible to regulate a cascade pressure on each of the successive faces so as to gradually decrease the pressure between the steps. If each step has a pressure drop of 1000 PSI, the seal could effectively seal 3000 PSI.
    [0063] The novelty here, regardless of the use of a porous medium, is that the bearing sealing openings between the faces of the porous seals at 229 on the inner surfaces of the corresponding rings facing each other 223 and 233 are fixed in the assembly. This is not a spring loaded adjustment, so there is no possibility of a “hang-up”, as noted as the main problem in the current state of the art by Droscher's patent No. 7,823,885, which leaves sealing faces open . The robustness of this aerostatic bearing technology as a porous media seal means that even if the mating rings lock onto the shaft and there is no axial displacement of the shaft relative to the cartridge seal, the sealing faces will not be materially damaged and the mating ring sleeve will move on the axis. This effect can be increased by adding more faces of primary and matching rings, the face of seal 231 on primary ring 236 is an example of this. The thickness of 235 is adjusted while mounting. Additionally, another porous carbon sealing face could be disposed on the opposite side of the corresponding ring 223 in the space depicted at 234. This follows logically from the description of illustration 600.
    [0064] It should be noted that the API suggests several different configurations for seals and that such configurations include face-to-face, back-to-back, double opposite, tandem seals. In some cases flexible elements rotate on the shaft and in other cases flexible elements are integrated into the stator. It is desired, and illustrated here, that this porous aerostatic bearing technology can be employed on the faces of all seal configurations.
    [0065] Figures 2C-1 to 2C-4 serve to illustrate the advantages of aerostatic bearings as externally pressurized porous media seals over hydrostatic seals in dry gas seal applications. In figure 2C-1, we see the introduction of a dry gas seal at a pressure greater than the process gas at orifice 253, slide 252 rotating at high speed with shaft 251 has aerodynamic characteristics 254 engraved on its faces to assist in establishing a sealing film on each side of the slide. The seal gas flows into the opening from the outer edge 255 through the openings to exit through the lower pressure edge 256. In Figure 2C-2, an axial or angular change in the shaft with respect to the stator causes the opening at one side becomes smaller 257, as well as making the opening on the other side larger 258. It should be noted that the hardness of the air films would resist such movement, yet such movements do occur. At this height, the flow of seal gas to the side with the smaller opening 257 would be reduced as the pressure takes the path of least resistance which is the larger opening 258 on the opposite side. In this case, where the slide is closer to the opposing surface, flow is restricted and there is less flow into the area where one would like more pressure to avoid contact. At the point of contact, all pressure and flow will pass through the side of the large opening 258, taking the slide to the opposite side 257. This is an unstable situation. Although the hydrodynamic characteristics may be trying to pump atmospheric pressure into this area, it is difficult to get air to flow through the smaller opening especially if the change was axial rather than angular.
    [0066] In figure 2C-3, high pressure gas is introduced through orifice 259, in chamber 260, then through porous medium 261, which restricts the flow inlet at seal opening 262, there are features etched on slide 163. With a similar axial or angular change in the position of the slide towards one of the sealing faces 263, the sealing pressure at the opening at 263 will automatically increase until the slide actually makes contact, at which time the pressure it is trying exiting the porous medium will approach the inlet pressure. The relative force between the slide and the seal face is mitigated by the pressure that is trying to get out of the seal face at 263. And at the same time, the opposite side 264 has a lower pressure as the opening is larger and the restriction is coming of the porous medium rather than the edge of the opening, so the larger opening results in less pressure. This results in a naturally stable situation where the side with the smallest opening is always building the greatest pressure and the side with the largest opening has the least pressure. In the aerodynamic seals illustrated in 2C-1 and 2C-2 the opposite is true.
    [0067] When looking at the 2D figure it is possible to see that the hardness of an aerostatic bearing air film changes with its thickness. The thinner the air gap, the greater the hardness. The graph in Figure 2D is a load-to-lift ratio curve; the slope of the curve represents the hardness of the bearing at that point. A horizontal line represents zero (0) hardness and a vertical line represents infinite hardness. Regardless of whether you are dealing with a hole in the face of an externally pressurized bearing or an opening in the perimeter of an aerodynamic bearing, the smaller the opening, the more difficult it is to get enough air to be distributed over the entire bearing surface. With the porous seal, air is being emitted from the entire bearing face directly into the opening, there is no problem trying to get air to flow through the opening. This makes the porous bearing a more resistant dry gas bearing. Additionally, it should be noted that the flow through the opening is a cubic function of the opening, so doubling the opening results in an eight-fold increase in flow. The stability of porous bearings enables such small openings with a high degree of safety and reliability and is preferable.
    [0068] As seen in Figure 3A, a shaft 301, which can rotate at high speeds, is rotated within a stationary cylindrical seal bearing 310. Contamination or pressures that exist in volume 308 are sealed and prohibited passage into the opening 309 by means of hydrostatic pressure coming out of opening 309. The housing or casing represented by 311 can be equipped to receive the stationary cylindrical seal bearing directly or an adapter block 315 can be used, in this case an O-ring 313 would provide a static seal on that interface. In this embodiment, it is preferable to have a retainer 303 on the low pressure side of the seal and a gap 302 must be provided between this retainer on the shaft. A passage 306 is required to convey high pressure fluid to the cylinder seal assembly. O-rings 312 can provide multiple functions, one of these functions is to seal chamber 307 so that this high pressure fluid can be led into seal body 310 through a single hole 306 without having to plug an adapter directly into the seal body. These O-rings can also be used to provide radial and angular compensation, the shaft is completely free to move axially over the air film. O-rings 312 can also be used to contain epoxy, which can be injected through a hole 314, which will fill the cylindrical opening 304 between the mounting block and the seal body that is grooved mounted thereon if desired is. With atmospheric pressure present, the seal will align with the shaft, which should be held in the centerline position of the machine as the epoxy dries, securely holding the seal in position. (See information on New Way aerostatic bearing assemblies).
    [0069] The high pressure fluid entering through opening 306 and making its way through the hole in the seal body will be distributed axially and radially between the seal body 310 and the porous medium 316 through a labyrinth 305, which can be in the porous medium or in the seal body. Although compensation through porous media is the preferred mode of execution, other compensation methods are possible. Aerostatic bearing compensation by porous means is only one potential solution, hole, step, groove, inherent or pocket type compensation, among other compensation techniques known in the art may be employed. Porous aerostatic bearings are known in the art and are described by the inventor in earlier patent applications. Furthermore, methods for providing clean fluid under pressure are well known and widely available. Porous medium 316 can contain graphite, carbon, silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, or basically any porous or sintered material. These materials are commonly found as face seals and mechanical seals and as slides and slide faces in dry gas seals. Instead of just filling or sealing this porosity, which is common practice, porosity is used as an aerostatic bearing function.
    [0070] With reference to Figure 3B, there is a shaft 351 and a casing 352, which are coupled by means of a bearing system 353. It being desirable to isolate the bearing from the process or environment in area 357, an aerostatic gas seal 355 , consistent with the illustration in figure 300 (with the exception of this example, the aerostatic pressure is channeled through a flexible tube 356) a little shorter axially, is coupled to the shaft 351 through a film of high pressure air, which supports the 355 seal non-contact with respect to shaft. Thus the shaft can rotate at high speeds with virtually no torque transmitted to the seal because of the low shear forces at the air gap, but the seal can follow the shaft movement without contact due to the radial hardness of the air film. Mechanical bellows allow the seal to follow the shaft rather than keeping it fixedly attached to the housing. Additional methods for providing compensation are detailed in illustrations 700 to 1,000.
    [0071] Unlike labyrinth seals, cylindrical seal bearings are coupled to the shaft through the rigidity of the air film. In example 350, the gasket is supported by the rotating shaft it is sealing. This allows for the elimination of alignment issues in labyrinth-type seals. The seal is stationary with respect to the stator and connected to it through some type of 354 flexible bellows, diaphragm or axial O-ring arrangement with examples of offset assemblies. It would also be possible to use a circumferential seal and mount it between axial facing seals as described in figure 200 and 800.
    [0072] Bearing insulators that look like figure 2A, 3B or 7-10 can be found at Garlock, Waukesha and Crane and are examples of other seal manufacturers that employ offset assemblies that allow for shaft center shifting, angular movements of the shaft and axial displacements. In some cases, these bearing insulators used air or water pressurized through an uncompensated annular groove to help effect the seal, which are characterized by high fluids and low pressures due to their wide openings and lack of compensation.
    [0073] A shaft 401 that can rotate at high speed has a blade slide 405 coupled to it using a mounting ring 413 that is secured to the shaft by cap screws 403 and/or a ball retainer. An O-ring 410 can be employed to seal the gap at 402. It will be noted that there are two illustrations in figure 4; in view A, the blade 405 is not facing the porous sealing face of the seal and the opening 406 allows a view of the blade slide 405, in view B, the blade slide is in position and the opening 406 between the slide of blade and the porous face 412 is as it would be if it were in operation, less than 25 microns. The blade itself can be directly coupled to the ball retainer if the shaft is also equipped with a ball retainer (a ball retainer would be the axial face created by a step in the diameter) see 600. The blade slide is characterized by being thin axially and therefore different from conventional runners. The blade slide can be of any thickness, but it will probably be between 0.1 and 1 mm thick. This blade runner has the advantage of being lightweight and therefore has a minimal effect on the moment of inertia of the shaft and on potential imbalances caused by the runner. Because the pressure to be sealed in volume 401 is equal anywhere in the volume, it acts non-uniformly on the back flexion portion of the blade, forcing it against the seal bearing face with a constant area force per unit . For this reason, it is not necessary to have a heavy, rigid slide connected to the axle. The opening 406 will vary, but a force equal to and opposing forces present in the volume 404 will be generated at the air opening. This embodiment could be very suitable for replacing brush-type seals especially in turbines designed as air turbines, as it will seal more effectively, have zero or at least relatively low friction or wear, and will take up considerably less axial space.
    [0074] High pressure gas a few bars higher than that present in volume 404 is introduced through orifice 408, which conducts pressure to chamber 409, which distributes atmospheric pressure evenly in the rear portion of porous medium 412 that will create pressure at the opening 406 in its face and between the slides 405.
    [0075] The volume 404 represents a volume on one side of the seal, this could be a gearbox housing, a motor generation housing, or a gas or process fluid such as a mixer, a purifier, a water pump or gas piping, or a seal between compartments, impellers or steps in a part of rotating equipment, such as a compressor, as examples. The numeral 414 would represent the box or casing. There may or may not be an adapter plate as shown in figure 200 and numeral 205. The seal body itself 411 would likely be mounted on the housing or housing or on the adapter plate with an O-ring 407 ring type seal. seal in illustration 100 refers to a seal that would be lightly loaded, it should be recognized that the seal body in its assembly may be designed to be hard enough that it does not deform significantly under the pressure differences that are being sealed. Alternatively, it may be designed so that it flexes and that it will flex to cooperate with the conformable nature of the blade slide, which is essentially a flat steel spring flex.
    [0076] In the state of the art of Figure 5A, a conventional centrifugal compressor employs a sealing and bearing system described herein (but this is the description of many other potential applications in rotary equipment); shaft 501 departs from compressor chamber 504 through a labyrinth-type seal 502, into cartridge seal 503, which fits into seal chamber within compressor housing 505. Then a face seal or dry seal The gas run between the primary ring 507 and the corresponding ring 506, which we will refer to as the primary seal 508. Between the labyrinth 502 and the primary seal 508, a buffer gas is introduced through the orifice 524, most of this gas flows from back to the process side as the labyrinth seal has a high degree of flow even with just the equivalent of one bar of pressure difference. This buffer gas is important to keep the primary seal opening clean. A certain amount of the gas flows through the mechanical face or aerodynamic primary seal 508 and into the chamber 509, and finally exits through the outlet 510. Then there is a seal gas or inert gas introduced through orifice 512, as before, the most of this gas flows through labyrinth seal 511 and exits through outlet 510. A certain amount of this gas flows through the secondary seal formed by corresponding ring 513 and primary ring 514. This is because the pressure introduced into 512 is greater than the pressure in volume 515. This flow is expelled through outlet 516. There is also a separation gas introduced through orifice 517, which flows through separation seal 518. A portion of that flow migrates to volume 515 and exits through outlet 516, and a portion of that flow passes through labyrinth seal 519 (if any) and goes into bearing chamber 520. So you have process gas and buffer gas flowing out through outlet 510 which is then mixed with the seal gas or i. nerte that was introduced through 512. This needs to be reprocessed or sent to the torch. The gas flowing through the secondary seal and into volume 515 mixes with the separating gas being introduced through 517 and then exits through outlet 516, and must also be sent to the torch or otherwise processed or reported as an issue. Additionally, off-gas flowing into bearing chamber 520 will find its way out through outlet 521 and will become an additional environmental concern. The bearing chamber has oil being pumped into it through orifice 522, the oil then needs to be removed through orifice 523 (which may be positioned in the lower portion), it needs to be filtered and cooled to control its viscosity, the which is important because it is very sensitive to temperature. With all those pipes running in and out of each end of the compressor, more than one operator thought he was facing a jellyfish.
    [0077] In the preferred execution mode shown in Figure 5B, the services, complications and environmental problems listed above are eliminated through the following teachings that represent a novelty. With reference to figure 550, please note that oil was removed as a means of lubrication for the bearings supporting the compressor shaft. Instead of gas, bearings that operate on the gas being compressed in the compressor are used to create an aerostatic bearing as support 560 for shaft 551. Bearing cartridge 555 and bearing or seal chamber in compressor housing 554 may have new ones designs to take advantage of the more compact designs that are already possible, but this is not necessary as the seal cartridge can take up the same space as the oil cartridge.
    [0078] The preferred embodiment is to use a porous media restraint 558 on the face of the externally pressurized floating insert aerostatic bearing 560. These bearings can be fed using the same buffer gas that was used in the state of the art, but this buffer gas is in turn pumped into the externally pressurized bearings 560. The bearings require a greater pressure differential, probably in the range between 4 to 20 bar above the pressure on the other side of the labyrinth seal in volume 552, but the volume of this buffer gas flow, which is now seal gas, is far below the required state of the art buffer gas, probably less than a cubic foot per minute per bearing. Buffer gas can be obtained from the high pressure side of the pump, or from the suction side, conducted through filters or dryers, compressed if taken from the suction side, and then introduced through orifice 556, into bearing 560, distributed to labyrinth 557, constrained by porous medium 558 and finally exits under pressure through the final bearing restriction, opening 559. After the gas has exited through bearing opening 559, it acts to slightly increase the pressure in the bearing housing as it the spent gas will flow back to the process through the 553 labyrinth seal or some other ring or separation seal that may be used at that location.
    [0079] All outputs are eliminated, there is no reason to have a process flow into the bearing chamber if there is nowhere to go. This eliminates the need to have torches or emission into the atmosphere, and is a huge environmental advantage. And as there is only one gas to deal with, services are considerably simplified, there is a reduction in maintenance costs and downtime, and a reduction in investment costs as well, as the investment cost in sealing services can mean twice as much. stamp cost. It also increases safety, since eliminating outlets also eliminates the possibility of loading oxygen in the flammable gases that are being compressed or allowing dangerous gases to escape.
    [0080] The rotor dynamics is significantly improved with the use of this invention, the shaft length that was previously used in seals can be eliminated, substantially stiffening the shaft 551. The shaft diameter can be increased on account of the capability of higher speed gas bearings, which again stiffens the shaft providing more area to press the film into the gas bearing.
    [0081] Environmental problems and dirt associated with oil are eliminated, there is no more oil leakage. Oil can no longer reach the face seal or dry gas seal and be charred. Oil no longer controls the temperature at which the seal housing can operate. Gas bearings can operate in the most extreme ranges possible, from cryogenics to super heated steam. It should be noted here that conventional techniques for gluing the 558 porous medium to the stainless steel or aluminum housings of the 560 bearings is not suitable at extreme temperatures.
    [0082] The compressor, or also in the case of a large gas turbine or generator, will have the rotor supported by a frictionless gas film even with an RPM equal to zero. This reduces risk at startup and shutdown, allows for slow operations and pauses without the danger of hang-ups or bearing damage, and enables frictionless startups and shutdowns.
    [0083] Because of the excellent aerodynamic properties available on the porous polished face, the external pressure to the bearing can often be interrupted when the compressor or a turbo machine has already reached a sufficient speed, as at that point the shaft is being supported by through aerodynamic effects. Thus, the auxiliary compressor (if any) can be started only during start-up and shutdown, or in slow running conditions. If this auxiliary compressor fails during operation, this will not affect the operation of the main compressor and the rotor may turn to a stop in the event of a loss of pressure without causing damage due to the excellent tribological properties of the steel shaft on one face of carbon graphite bearing. Additionally, the technology is suitable for encapsulated compressors intended for underwater compression as the bearings can draw their pressure from the high pressure side of the pump and have an acceptable service life as sleeve bearings in the start and end cycles.
    [0084] However, without sealing, and without outlets, the bearings operate under extreme pressures. If the suction pressure of the pump is 100 bar, and on the output side of the compressor it is 200 bar, then the bearings could be supplied with 106 bar and the flow through these bearings becomes the buffer gas. Bearings operating in a 100 bar environment will in fact only notice a 6 bar pressure difference.
    [0085] As shown in figure 6A, a shaft 601 that may be rotating at high speed has connected to it multiple thin blades as described in figure 400 above. These blades 614 are fixed to shaft 601 by means of a retainer and screw 616 and are separated from each other by means of precision separator rings 615. Porous bearings 604 are connected to Stator 603 by means of a retainer and screw 612. Porous seals 604 are also separated by precision spacers 605 of approximately the same size or slightly thicker, but preferably no more than 10 µ thick, than blade slides. There is a 610 gap between the porous seals inner diameter and the outer diameter on the shaft. There is an additional 611 clearance between the outside diameter of the blade runners and the inside diameter of the stator. This clearance provides radial movement of the shaft. If there is a pressure differential between volume 602 and volume 609, for example a greater pressure in volume 602, that pressure will act against the first blade slide forcing it against the first porous seal. But because greater pressure is being introduced through ports 606 and that pressure is conducted circumferentially through groove 607 and then radially through the porous seal through radial hole 608. face between the blade and the bearing creating a separating force that also acts as a seal.
    [0086] With respect to illustration 6B; this mode of execution is also pertinent to air engines and is also found in jet aircraft or gas turbines that employ sealing brushes or centrifugal pump type seals. These types of contact seals have maintenance issues, they create friction and heat, which cause losses in efficiency and are noisy. These problems are largely solved by employing porous carbon aerostatic bearing technology. Bearing technology is taught in several other passages in the descriptive report. This particular configuration has a 651 turbine shaft coupled with a mechanism to retain slides that are flexibly mounted to the shaft using parallel bending technology. These slides 656 cooperate with a stationary seal 653 which, in this preferred embodiment, uses compensation by porous means 654. The stationary portion of the seal is mounted in the motor/compressor/generator housing 655 using conventional techniques similar to what would have been employed for assemble the stationary section of the seal to the friction base. Spacers 657 are used to approximately locate the slides axially with the stationary portions of the seal and disconnect switch of the 652, which is connected to the shaft and locked by the 659. Parallel bends 658 allow the slide to translate axially with respect to the shaft, which it will happen, for example, under the acceleration of the start, and still remain parallel to the face of the stationary part of the seal.
    [0087] Figure 6C is a close-up view of the seal flexible blade slide showing the seal face 661, the bending components 662, one of the through holes for the assembly 663 and the area 664 that has either been ground, milled or cut with weld-cut (EDM) from a solid stainless steel. There may be other ways to manufacture a flexible slide.
    [0088] Methods to provide additional compensation; starting with the simplest execution modes; in figures 7A and 7B, we have a shaft 701 of a piece of equipment that contains a slide 711 that has a spherical outside diameter. A spherical outer diameter (OD) slide is coupled to the shaft via two 702 O-rings. This is advantageous because many shafts suffer damage and/or deformation at their ends, keyways will usually have raised edges, these protrusion points can damage the precision surface of a bearing/seal as they pass through these damaged areas to position themselves. O-rings can tolerate these types of protruding spots due to their strength. Another advantage is that this reduces issues with tolerance for fit in 705. This may not pose a problem if the cartridge seal employing this technology is associated with a sleeve for the shaft that goes with the cartridge seal. The spherical OD of the slide couples with complementary spherical bearings, which in the preferred execution mode would be restricted by porous means. Spherical aerostatic bearings are mounted on yoke 712 which is split vertically, such split is not shown, and air is fed to the rear of porous restraint elements 703 via an air inlet port 706 and distribution labyrinth 704. this technique as taught will enable an air gap with several bars of pressure between the porous carbon restriction element 703 and the OD of the 711 spherical slide. This air film provides a friction and wear free way of providing angular freedom to the shaft and avoid excessive constriction of angular changes on the shaft as indicated by 713, 707 and 710. Numeral 709 provides an outlet between the two spherical bearings, this prevents a build-up of pressure between the two sealing elements and thus the bearings experience more pressure drop and your performance increases.
    [0089] With reference to image 7C. The porous media restriction element 751 is shrunk fitted within the non-porous housing 752, which is made of aluminum, steel or stainless steel or some other suitable type of material. A chamber 753 comprising approximately 50% of the surface area between the shell and the porous medium and having a conductance of at least 10 times that of the free flow through the porous medium can be disposed on the ID (inner diameter) of the shell or OD of the medium. porous or either. An air supply hole 754 to the chamber provides airflow into the chamber and then through the porous medium and into the seal opening. The seal opening provides an axial degree of freedom, but as noted above in areas where a precision shaft is not available it may be wise to prefer the O-rings illustrated in 700 or the use of a shaft sleeve that comes with the cartridge seal. It should be noted that in execution mode 750, the shaft can rotate within the gas bearing journal and still allow for axial freedom of the shaft.
    [0090] Figures 8A and 8B show a suitable execution mode to provide freedom for radial and frictionless displacements of the shaft. This is achieved by taking the yoke 824 and 817, also described in 700 and 750, and suspending it between pressure faces similar to those in Figure 200. The yoke 824 is keyed with an anti-rotation pin (not shown) to avoid it rotate with the shaft. This anti-rotation pin is provided with sufficient clearance to allow free movement of components with respect to the intended limited range of compensation. This yoke is divided into 821 and the 820 O-ring seal is employed. A pressure plate or collar 806 of rigidity suitable for this application is provided with orifice 807 and chamber 805 to distribute atmospheric pressure to the back of porous medium 816. Pressure collars 806 can be sealed at junction 819 by an O-ring in a groove such as 818. Spherical gas bearings have a chamber 804 and an air inlet hole 808 and a porous restraining member 803 also as described earlier in figures 700 and 750. in this execution mode there are no outlets between the spherical bearings, instead the high pressure generated in this region is used to drive pressure through the journal without making contact. External pressure enters through 810 in stationary housing 822 and then into chamber 823, which is sealed on all sides by pressure bearings, and then through hole 809 into the area between the spherical bearings where it can pass without doing contact through hole 811 into the chamber as described at 753, then through restriction element 802 into the opening between the seal face impeller of the restriction element at 814.
    [0091] This execution mode provides axial freedom for the shaft, angular freedom for the shaft, and radial displacements of the shaft so there is no friction using bearings that are also seals in all places of movement.
    [0092] Shaft 801 can rotate and move axially within bearing element 802 and slide 826. The slide is not coupled to anything except through bearing films and so it can also rotate. This would allow them to share the shaft speed, so for a shaft rotating at 20,000 RPM, 10,000 RMP could be caught by journal 814 if the slide was rotating at 10,000 RPM and the other 10,000 RPM could be carried between the 803 spherical bearings. 815 and slide 826.
    [0093] The difference between figures 8A and 8B and figures 9A and 9B is that the inlet for the opposite thrust bearing, which provides frictionless radial movement for the shaft, had hole 908 and chamber 905 moved internally to the yoke 924 of the pressure plates 906 where they were in figure 800. This simplifies the fabrication of the pressure plates 906 and allows them to have greater rigidity because of their specific axial thicknesses, because the yoke is exposed to a considerable load with respect to the stiffness of columns where the pressure cap sees a cantilever-like bending stiffness that is not as strong. It should be noted that in each of the bearing configurations in figure 800 and figure 900, that the interface between the surface of the medium-porous gas bearing and the guide path in which 916, 915 and 914 acts, only one side of the bearing elements is open to ambient pressure, this reduces the effect of external pressure bearings, yet the bearings maintain significant load capacities.
    [0094] The difference between figures 8A-9B and figure 10 is that figure 10 is completely vented, that is, all gas bearings see the complete pressure drop between the external inlet pressure and the ambient or pressures of a process that are present at the trailing edges of the bearings. Then, external pressure enters pressure plates 1008 through 1009 and is distributed to the rear of the porous medium restriction element by chamber 1007. Additionally, a through hole 1005 has been drilled into the porous medium and directly into the interior. of chamber 1007. This hole roughly lines up with a hole in yoke 1006, which has a recess 1004 that maintains the conductance between 1005 and 1006 during the projected displacements of this compensating device. It is aligned due to the anti-rotation pin depicted in figure 800. Hole 1006 provides pressure conductance for both the spherical bearing element 1003 and the porous bearing trunnion 1002 through the through hole 1010 drilled into the yoke 1028, which is then plugged in 1011. Numeral 1010 takes the pressure and flow to chamber 1020 providing external pressurization for spherical restraint elements/bearings 1020. Through hole 1010 also communicates with hole 1012, which is threaded to accept a fitting, the fitting is connected to a flexible tube that provides motion compensation in the pressure conductance to be a spherical slide, which is now also fitted to the yoke to provide anti-rotation with respect to the yoke. Pressure and flow to trunnion restrictor 1002 is provided through fittings 1014, 1016 through tube 1015 and into chamber 1030.
    [0095] An annular groove in the center of the trunnion portion of the gas bearing provides an equal communication of the bearing/seal flow to a central outlet hole. This is the radial hole in spherical slide 1028 and is shown next to fitting 1016. This hole exhausts to the space between the spherical bearings and both of these bearings can exhaust through the hole that fittings 1014, 1016 and tube 1015 partially consume. Hole 1013 through housing 1026 provides exhaust for these flows plus flow from opposing axial faces 1021.
    [0096] In order to perform a seal, as shown in Figure 11A, a porous material 1102 comprising one side of two opposing surfaces is used to uniformly distribute hydraulic pressure from an external source of pressurized fluid (gas, liquid, steam, etc.) between two surfaces. Pressure is introduced through 1106 into chamber 1108, then through porous medium 1102 and into opening 1107. This hydrostatic pressure creates a force that is opposite to the forces of pressure differences or springs trying to join the two faces , and the other face is the seal side of the 1110. See also figure 100 for the description relating to this illustration 1100. This hydrostatic pressure can be adjusted to the point where the two faces are completely unloaded and the contact pressure is equal to zero between the two faces, even if the faces are in intimate 1107 contact. Because the faces are in contact, there is approximately no flow through the opening and the pressure line being fed into the porous material will be present between the two faces.
    [0097] Thus, in another illustrative example with reference to figure 11B, if there is 1,000 pounds (approximately 453.59 Kg) of force, or in this illustration, a mass of 1,000 pounds represented by 1124 is forcing the face of the seal body 1123 to mate with the counterface 1121 and the seal faces have 10 in2 [about 25 cm2] of area between them and 100PSI atmospheric pressure is fed into orifice 1125 and this pressure is distributed across the back of the porous medium using a chamber as described several times before in this specification, the face of the porous seal will have exactly zero contact force between the faces since the hydrostatic force between the faces will equal the mass or force that is forcing the seal faces to meet. unite. This contact force can easily be adjusted by varying the inlet pressure to reduce wear and heat generated by friction.
    [0098] This technique combines the high hardness and damping of sleeve bearings and contact seals with the low friction, high speed capability of fluid film bearings and seals.
    [0099] Porous medium 102 can consist of graphite, carbon, silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, aluminum oxide or basically any porous or sintered material. These materials are commonly found as face seals and mechanical seals and as slides and slide faces in dry gas seals. Instead of just filling or sealing this porosity, porosity is used to conduct and evenly distribute the hydrostatic pressure.
    [0100] Compensation by drilled hole or by stage type bearings will not work in this application, as only a uniform porous medium is able to uniformly distribute a hydrostatic pressure without any opening. For example, if we used holes, when the faces were in contact, hydrostatic pressure would be applied only over the area of the holes.
    [0101] Referring to figure 12, this is an illustration of a 1201 solid graphite carbon floating insert radial bearing. concerning the joining of two components for use under extreme temperatures. Most graphite carbon will not start to oxidize until it is exposed to a temperature greater than 800°C, so this allows for a very wide temperature range. In this case, a chamber for distributing air to the back of the porous media face is obtained by drilling through holes 1203. These through holes are threaded and plugged 1204 with high temperature ceramic or enamel, which is then treated with heat - or enamel - so that it becomes co-sintered with graphite carbon. A ceramic insert of a metal cutting tool is sintered in 1206 while distributing the load of the Hertzian contact area of the floating insert mechanism. The numeral 1205 represents a high temperature fitting already known in the art. The numeral 1202 represents a diameter that would be complementary to a shaft that such a bearing could support.
    [0102] It is also possible to co-glaze separate ceramic components, for example a non-porous casing with a porous media face. This co-enamel treatment is essentially a monolithic part, but there was an opportunity to machine chambers or labyrinths into the green parts before they were sintered or cast. Alternatively, a glass bonding system, similar to an enameling operation done on the outside of a ceramic piece, can be employed as a high temperature glue to join separate ceramic components into a single high temperature piece that could be used with a bearing or seal in extreme temperature environments.
    [0103] Although preferred modes of execution have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, those skilled in the art who have read the present description will readily realize that other modes of execution can be executed that fall within the scope of the invention, which should be interpreted as being limited only by the claims that follow.
    权利要求:
    Claims (7)
    [0001]
    1. Aerostatic or hydrostatic seal assembly comprising: - a rotating shaft (101) with a slide (110) coupled to the rotating shaft; - a housing (104) located concentrically to the axis and defining a cavity (103); - an annular seal body (109) coupled to the casing; - wherein the annular seal body (109) includes a porous means (102, 160, 170) positioned along the chamber (108, 161, 171) and a hole connected to the chamber (108, 161, 171), the body The annular seal (109) includes a conduction passage (106, 168, 178) for communicating pressurized liquid with the chamber (108, 161, 171) through the conduction passage (106, 168, 178), the chamber. (108, 161, 171) being configured to distribute pressurized liquid between the slide (110) and the porous medium (102, 160, 170) to create an annular film between the slide (110) and the porous medium (102, 160) 170), the seal assembly being characterized by a compensating assembly (111) which is an O-ring coupled to the slide (110) or porous means (102, 160, 170), the compensating assembly being configured to position the slide (110) and the porous means (102, 160, 170) face to face regardless of the axial displacement of the shaft, the annular seal body (109) being coupled to one end. adhesion of the casing (104) which is concentric to the shaft (101) with a second O-ring seal (105) disposed therebetween so that the pressurized fluid between the channel (110) and the porous means (102, 160, 170) ) prevents the contents present in the cavity (103) from escaping.
    [0002]
    2. Aerostatic or hydrostatic seal assembly, according to claim 1, characterized in that the porous media (102, 160, 170) is selected from a group containing graphite, carbon, silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, aluminum oxide and the combination of these elements.
    [0003]
    3. Aerostatic or hydrostatic seal assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that an adapter plate (205) is positioned between the housing and the seal body, and an O-ring (206) is positioned between the plate of adaptation and the body of the seal.
    [0004]
    4. Aerostatic or hydrostatic seal assembly, according to claim 1, characterized in that the porous medium is a sintered material.
    [0005]
    Aerostatic or hydrostatic seal assembly, according to claim 1, characterized in that the chamber has a conductance that is at least 9 times that of a free flow through the porous medium.
    [0006]
    6. Aerostatic or hydrostatic seal assembly, according to claim 1, characterized in that the pressurized liquid is a gas, a liquid or a vapor.
    [0007]
    7. Aerostatic or hydrostatic seal assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that the slide has a curved surface.
    类似技术:
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    同族专利:
    公开号 | 公开日
    EP2800917B1|2020-07-22|
    BR112014016605A2|2017-06-13|
    EP2800917A4|2015-11-25|
    EP2800917A2|2014-11-12|
    US20140294329A1|2014-10-02|
    BR112014016605A8|2017-07-04|
    CA2860653C|2018-03-13|
    SG10201506690WA|2015-09-29|
    US9441668B2|2016-09-13|
    US8753014B2|2014-06-17|
    SG11201403813TA|2014-09-26|
    JP6073922B2|2017-02-01|
    CA2860653A1|2013-07-11|
    JP2017062047A|2017-03-30|
    JP2015510091A|2015-04-02|
    WO2013103732A2|2013-07-11|
    US20130188895A1|2013-07-25|
    WO2013103732A3|2013-09-26|
    JP6562953B2|2019-08-21|
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    法律状态:
    2018-12-04| B06F| Objections, documents and/or translations needed after an examination request according [chapter 6.6 patent gazette]|
    2020-11-10| B07A| Application suspended after technical examination (opinion) [chapter 7.1 patent gazette]|
    2021-04-27| B09A| Decision: intention to grant [chapter 9.1 patent gazette]|
    2021-06-01| B350| Update of information on the portal [chapter 15.35 patent gazette]|
    2021-06-29| B16A| Patent or certificate of addition of invention granted [chapter 16.1 patent gazette]|Free format text: PRAZO DE VALIDADE: 20 (VINTE) ANOS CONTADOS A PARTIR DE 03/01/2013, OBSERVADAS AS CONDICOES LEGAIS. |
    优先权:
    申请号 | 申请日 | 专利标题
    US201261582674P| true| 2012-01-03|2012-01-03|
    US61/582,674|2012-01-03|
    US201261704927P| true| 2012-09-24|2012-09-24|
    US61/704,927|2012-09-24|
    US201261728595P| true| 2012-11-20|2012-11-20|
    US61/728,595|2012-11-20|
    PCT/US2013/020162|WO2013103732A2|2012-01-03|2013-01-03|Air bearing for use as seal|
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