ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,523,303, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to NOK Corp. (Tokyo).
"Sealing structure" was invented by Hiromasa Ichikawa (Kumamoto, Japan) and Eizo Hayashi (Kumamoto, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A sealing structure having a circular pillar-shaped shaft that has an annular groove, which is continuous in a circumferential direction, on an outer circumferential surface, a housing having a shaft hole into which the shaft is inserted, a seal ring which seals a gap between the shaft and the housing, and a backup ring disposed on the low-pressure side of the seal ring inside the annular groove, wherein: there is a tapered surface Alpha on ...