Patent ID: 7059608

Claim:
A lip seal cartridge for sealing a region between a shaft and surrounding structure, comprising: a. a seal ring having a front end and a back end, the seal ring annularly encasing a plurality of lip seal, each of the lip seals being biased radially inwardly toward the shaft and at least one of the plurality of lip seals being selectively engageable with the shaft; b. a lip seal deployment sleeve axially aligned with the seal ring, the lip seal deployment sleeve comprising an annular barrier separating at least one of the plurality of lip seal from the shaft when the lip seal deployment sleeve is in an initial position, the lip seal deployment sleeve being axially movable along the shaft away from the initial position, whereupon the annular barrier ceases to separate one of the plurality of lip seals from the shaft, thereby enabling the lip seal to engage the shaft; c. an installation sleeve having an annular barrier disposed between the shaft and all of the plurality of lip seals, including those initially separated from the shaft by the lip seal deployment sleeve, the annular barrier of the installation sleeve being further disposed between the shaft and the annular barrier of the lip seal deployment sleeve; and d. the installation sleeve being axially removable from the lip seal cartridge, whereupon the shaft is engaged by any of the plurality of lip seals not initially separated from the shaft by the lip seal deployment sleeve.