Patent ID: 8776864

Claim:
A seal assembly for use in a regenerative heat exchanger having a housing and a heat exchanging body disposed within the housing, one or both of the heat exchanging body and housing configured to rotate about an axis, the seal assembly configured to contact the housing during operation of the regenerative heat exchanger to substantially seal a hot gas conduit from a cold air conduit, the seal assembly comprising: a primary sealing member comprising a mounting base and a flexible portion with a contact edge at a distal end of the sealing member, the contact edge configured to resiliently contact a sector plate of the housing when the primary sealing member is mounted to the heat exchanging body via the mounting base, the primary sealing member defining a first distance between a proximalmost edge of the mounting base and the contact edge, the first distance being generally constant along the length of the primary sealing member; a second member comprising a mounting portion and a cantilevered portion with a front face configured to face airflow and gas flow during operation of the regenerative heat exchanger and a generally concave rear face that faces the flexible portion of the primary sealing member, the cantilevered portion extending from a proximal end to a distal end on one side of a vertical plane defined by the mounting portion and having a first portion that extends outward away from the plane of the mounting portion, a second portion that extends along a plane offset from and parallel to the plane of the mounting portion, and a third portion that extends toward the plane of the mounting portion, the second member defining a gap of between 0.1 inches and 1 inch between at least the second portion and the primary sealing member when the primary sealing member is unflexed such that said second portion and primary sealing member do not contact or engage each other, the second member defining a second distance between a proximalmost edge of the mounting portion and a distalmost edge of the cantilevered portion, the second distance being generally constant along the length of the second member, the mounting portion overlapping with the mounting base such that the mounting portion and mounting base are generally coextensive; wherein the first distance is greater than the second distance by a predetermined amount so as to limit the flexure of the flexible portion against the sector plate below a predetermined flexure amount when the seal assembly is installed in the regenerative heat exchanger.