Oil seal construction for rotary engines

Claim 1

A rotary internal combustion engine having a housing comprising a peripheral wall having a multilobed inner surface and a pair of end walls defining an engine cavity, a shaft transpiercing the end walls and having an eccentric portion within the engine cavity, a multiapexed rotor rotatably mounted on the eccentric, the rotor having internal cavities through which a cooling medium flows and having side walls each having a central circular opening therein, wherein the improvement comprises: a. a sealing assembly disposed at each side of the rotor and having at least one axially movable seal ring disposed in the rotor side wall opening on its associated side; b. a resilient flexible annular sealing member comprising a thin-walled split tube disposed between the cylindrical wall of the rotor opening and the outer circumference of the seal ring in sealing relation to the seal ring and the cylindrical wall; c. a supporting ring mounted on the rotor axially inwardly of the seal ring, and spring means disposed between the supporting ring and the seal ring and urging the seal riNg against the adjacent housing side wall; and d. the supporting ring defining with the axially inward side of the seal ring an annular space in communication with the rotor internal cavities whereby the rotor cooling medium flows through the annular space to cool the sealing assembly, the axially inward side of the flexible annular sealing member being exposed to the cooling medium and washed thereby.