Patent ID: 7523945

Claim:
A sealing apparatus sealing an annular gap between a shaft and a housing, the shaft and the housing being relatively rotated, the combination of the sealing apparatus, the shaft and the housing comprising a seal lip extending toward a sealing fluid side in sliding contact with a surface of the shaft, a plurality of truncated triangular shaped projections spaced apart at a root of the seal lip and extending towards said sealing fluid side, a distance between a surface of the plurality of projections and a center of the shaft being slightly larger than a radius of the shaft, and at least a part of a side surface of each of the plurality of projections exhibiting a suction function of returning fluid that has leaked from a seal lip tip end to the sealing fluid side when the shaft and the housing are relatively rotated, each of the plurality of projections including and extending at a same level as and between a set of side surfaces of each of the plurality of projections, the side surfaces of one projection of the plurality of projections and an adjacent projection of the plurality of projections define a triangular shaped recess located between the one projection and the adjacent projection with the recess opening and pointing down towards the seal tip end and towards said sealing fluid side and having an apex pointing toward an anti-sealing fluid side.