Patent ID: 7052016

Claim:
A sliding element for providing a seal against a fluid between sliding faces of a pair of relatively slidable components, one of said components being a stationary sliding element and the other of said components being a rotary sliding element, said fluid being located in either an inner circumferential side or an outer circumferential side of said sliding faces, said sliding element comprising: a) dimples being disposed on at least one sliding face of said sliding faces and being inclined towards a rotary direction when viewed facing said fluid along a radial direction and being made longitudinally long along the inclination the dimples being comprised of grooves formed on the sliding face; b) a plurality of dimple sections having annular forms of different radii and being disposed on said sliding face and having said dimples being arranged along said annular forms; and c) a plurality of dam sections having annular forms and being disposed between said dimple sections, a surface of the dam sections in the same plane as the sliding face, wherein each of said dimples has a long rectangular shape extending along an inclination direction thereof, adjoining dimples arranged along the inclination direction between adjoining dimple sections are separated by one of the annular-shaped dam sections, and each of the dam sections has predetermined constant inner and outer diameters and is separated by one of the plurality of dimple sections.