Appeal 2007-1376
Application 10/677,870
peripheral surface and fitted around the rotating shaft to block between the
inner peripheral surface of the non-rotating member and the outer peripheral
surface of the rotating shaft of the water pump, the slinger having an outer
peripheral edge formed with an outer-diameter-side cylindrical section
which is concentric with the rotating shaft and has an outer peripheral
surface, the seal ring comprising a first seal lip that comes in sliding contact
with the outer peripheral surface of the rotating shaft or with the outer
peripheral surface of the slinger that rotates together with the rotating shaft,
and a second seal lip that has a tip edge which comes in sliding contact with
the outer peripheral surface of the outer-diameter-side cylindrical section,
and that is tilted inward in the radial direction toward the tip edge thereof,
wherein the amount of elastic deformation of the second seal lip, which
occurs when the tip edge of the second seal lip comes in contact with the
outer peripheral surface of the outer-diameter-side cylindrical section, is at
least 1/10 and up to 7/10 the height of the second seal lip in a free state, and
the roughness of a section of the outer peripheral surface of the outer-
diameter-side cylindrical section with which the tip edge of the second seal
lip comes in sliding contact is from 0.2 μm to 2.0 μm in the arithmetic mean
Ra, or is from 0.8 μm to 8.0 μm in the maximum height Ry.
The Examiner relies upon the following references as evidence of
obviousness:
Repella US 4,155,560 May 22, 1979
Takenaka US 5,056,799 Oct. 15, 1991
Nobuhiko (‘396) JP H9-21396 Jan. 21, 1997
Rolf (JP ‘985) JP H10-331985 Dec. 15, 1998
Johnen US 2003/0189293 A1 Oct. 9, 2003
Hosoda US 6,682,076 B1 Jan. 27, 2004
Appellants’ claimed invention is directed to a seal apparatus for a
water pump comprising a seal ring 13 fastened to an inner surface of a non-
rotating member and a slinger 14 that is fitted around the rotating shaft to
block between the inner surface of the non-rotating member and the outer
2
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