Patent ID: 8328201

Claim:
A seal assembly for sealing a space between a shaft and a housing, the shaft being rotatable about a central axis, the seal assembly comprising: a seal body connectable with the housing and having a centerline and a generally circular cylindrical inner circumferential sealing surface extending about the centerline, the sealing surface having a length between opposing axial ends and being slidably contactable with the shaft outer surface so as to define a sealing interface; and a generally annular biasing member disposed about a portion of the seal body and having a centerline and an axial length that is lesser than the length of the sealing surface, the biasing member being configured to exert a biasing force directed generally radially inwardly toward the centerline such that the seal body exerts a contact pressure on the shaft, the biasing member being angularly positioned on the seal body so as to generally lie within a plane extending non-perpendicularly through the sealing surface such that the contact pressure extends at least partially axially along the shaft axis so as to direct a substance entering the sealing interface toward a proximal one of the two axial ends of the sealing surface when the shaft rotates about the central axis.