Patent ID: 7090220

Claim:
A bearing seal for preventing contaminant ingress between a rotatable shaft and a bearing housing which supports the shaft for rotation about an axis, comprising: an annular cartridge, the cartridge including first and second ringlike sections which are releasably connectable, the connected first and second sections having an inside surface and an outside surface and defining a fluid flow path which extends from the inside surface to the outside surface, the fluid flow path substantially encircling the shaft; a collar extending around the first section adjacent the outside surface; and a plurality of tangs extending radially from the second section, the tangs being arcuately spaced about the second section and sized to engage the collar when the sections are interconnected, the sections of the cartridge being relatively rotatable about a common axis when connected, the first section mounted to the bearing housing and the second section mounted to the shaft, whereby purge fluid supplied to an annular volume adjacent the inside surface traverses the flow path in a radially outward direction and eventually flows past the collar and the tangs and outwardly from the annular cartridge in a circumferentially uniform manner, thereby to prevent contaminant ingress.