Patent ID: 7121716

Claim:
A shaft sealing arrangement for sealing bores around stirrer shafts of interest that emerge through walls of associated mixing vessels comprising: (a) a pair of generally cylindrical shaft sealing assemblies designed to be associated with a pair of adjacent spaced generally parallel stirrer shafts of interest, each said shaft sealing assembly includes a gland member and a gland housing, said gland member having an outside surface and an axis and including a plurality of raised spaced radially distributed wiper strips attached to said outside surface, said wiper strips being directionally deployed at an angle with the direction of the axis of said gland such that the wiper strips act to return escaping material back into an associated mixing vessel when said gland is rotated in a desired direction; (b) wherein in each said gland assembly is adapted to be mounted on to rotate with a corresponding one of said pair of stirrer shafts of interest and is enabled to move axially relative thereto; and (c) a seal drive system for operating said pair of gland assemblies along said pair of shafts of interest between a deployed position wherein each said sealing gland is positioned in a bore through which a corresponding stirrer shaft emerges and in a retracted position wherein said gland assembly is withdrawn outside said bore.