Patent ID: 7055828

Claim:
A lubricant seal assembly, comprising: an outer seal component mountable within a bore of a housing, said outer seal component including an annular carrier and an annular PTFE seal element supported on said carrier; an inner wear sleeve having an annular body portion mountable about a rotatable shaft extending through the bore of the housing and rotatable with the shaft relative to said outer seal component, and an end flange portion projecting radially outwardly of said annular body portion from an air side of said wear sleeve; said PTFE seal element disposed about and extending axially along and in direct sealing contact with a sealing surface of said annular body portion of said wear sleeve toward an axially inner end region of said wear sleeve opposite said end flange; said axially inner end region of said wear sleeve extending radially outwardly no further than said sealing surface of said body portion of said wear sleeve; said outer seal component including an axially outer-most end face surface disposed on an air side of said outer seal component in a common plane with an end face of said end flange portion of said wear sleeve, said end flange portion including an axial portion disposed radially outwardly of said end face of said end flange portion and extending axially inwardly of an axial inner face of said end flange portion, said axial portion nesting with said outer seal component to define a tortuous flow path, and wherein said outer seal component includes an elastomer material bonding said PTFE seal element to one side of said annular carrier facing away form said end flange portion of said wear sleeve and further defining at least one elastomer debris exclusion lip extending from said annular carrier generally toward said end flange portion radially inwardly of said axial portion of said wear sleeve so as to extend into said tortuous path; and wherein apart form said direct sealing contact between said PTFE seal element and said wear sleeve, there being no other physical contact between said seal component and said wear sleeve.