Seal arrangement for a tire pressure-regulating device

• US 7,997,316 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2007
• Issued: 08/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co.KG (INA-Holding Schaeffler GmbH & Co. KG)
• Original Assignee: Schaeffler KG (INA-Holding Schaeffler GmbH & Co. KG)
• Inventors: Schaefer, Marc-Andre, Heuberger, Robert, Walter, Wilhelm
• Primary Examiner(s): Stormer; Russell D
• Application Number:
  US12/278,834
• Publication Number:
  US 20080314487A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,671 Days
• Field of Search: 152415-418, 384/477, 384/484, 384/485, 384/479, 384/487, 384/544, 277/563
• US Class Current: 152/417
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/00363 Details of sealings
• CPC Class Codes: F16C 19/364 with tapered rollers, i.e. rollers having essentially the shape of a truncated cone
• CPC Class Codes: F16C 19/543 in O-arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: F16C 41/005 Fluid passages not relating to lubrication or cooling

Abstract

A seal arrangement for a tire pressure-regulating device for a motor vehicle, which provides a compressed-air supply to a tire of a vehicle through a hole in an inner ring of a rolling bearing of a wheel bearing, through a seal housing which is connected to a wheel hub in a rotationally fixed manner, and through the wheel hub itself. A flat seal is fixed on the inner ring of the rolling bearing and the radially outer end of the seal has a sealing lip which is directed towards the seal housing and bears against it.

Claims

1. A sealing arrangement for a tire pressure regulating device of a wheel hub of a motor vehicle, comprising:

a seal housing rotatably fixedly connected to the wheel hub;

a sliding ring arranged in the housing and having an outer surface in scaling contact with an inner surface of the seal housing; and

a sheet metal ring arranged coaxially within the sliding ring, the sheet metal ring being pot-shaped so as to define an inner space, the sheet metal ring having a base with a central passage orifice;

an inner ring of a rolling bearing of a wheel bearing, the inner ring having a bore;

a compressed air supply to a vehicle tire through the bore in the inner ring; and

a flat seal fastened to the inner ring, the flat seal having a radially outer end with a sealing lip directed toward the seal housing and bearing against the seal housing.

2. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flat seal is manufactured from an elastomeric material or an elastic plastic material.

3. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein leakage reception spaces are formed between the flat seal and the seal housing.

4. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 3, wherein the flat seal is connected to a carrier part which is arranged firmly on the inner ring of the rolling bearing.

5. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least one bore extends centrally through the inner ring, the carrier part and the flat seal to the passage orifice in the base of the sheet metal ring.

6. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 5, wherein the sheet metal ring contacts the flat seal in a region of the bore.

7. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 5, wherein additional bores extend through the inner ring, the carrier part, and the flat seal to the leakage reception spaces.

8. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 7, further comprising venting valves connected to the additional bores at a surface of the inner ring opposing the carrier part.

9. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 7, wherein a gap extends from an upper edge of the sheet metal ring, between an outer surface of the sheet metal ring and an inner surface of the sliding ring, to the leakage reception spaces.

10. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 5, wherein additional bores extend through the seal housing from an upper end of the seal housing to the leakage reception spaces.

11. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 10, further comprising venting valves connected to the additional bores at the upper end of the seal housing.

12. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 5, wherein the sheet metal ring has a side wall that forms corner regions with the base, additional bores being inclined obliquely inward at the corner regions so as to extend from the inner space to the leakage reception spaces.

13. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 12, further comprising venting valves connected to the additional bores.

14. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sealing lip is inclined obliquely inward toward the seal housing.