Patent ID: 7594664

Claim:
A seal assembly including a seal casing and a wear sleeve, wherein said seal casing comprises: a first axial flange; a first radial flange; plural chaplets bonded to said seal casing, lying on a portion of said casing first axial flange, each of said chaplets having a body including portions positioned with a sidewall lying parallel to said casing first axial flange and presenting a flat end face; a seal body bonded to and supported on said first radial flange, said seal body having frusto-conical air and oil side surfaces meeting along a seal band contacting an axial flange of said wear sleeve and; a bumper wall encircling said first radial flange, said bumper wall having a series of pyramid shaped formations thereon extending toward a radial flange of said wear sleeve, each of said pyramid shaped formations having an apex radially aligned with said bumper wall, each pyramid-shaped formation having four angularly related triangular planar sides, two of said sides being adjacent sides tapering axially inwardly and two opposite sides of said pyramid shaped formation tapering axially outwardly and meeting said flat end face of one of said plural chaplets, whereby said apex of said pyramid shaped formations initially contact said radial flange of said wear sleeve upon installation, whereby the apex initially contacts but rapidly first wears away and then gradually widens with continued wear to become substantially co-planar with said bumper wall, and whereby said bumper wall protects said seal assembly from accumulating contaminants in the space between the air side of the seal and said bumper wall.