the inner circumference of the wellhead housing so the wickers 34 engage the inlay 36 when seal assembly 22 is energized in this example inlay 36 can be formed from a metal softer than wellhead housing 18 and the metal making p seal assembly 22 example materials for the seal assembly include nickel based alloys such as inconel u00ae 718 in addition to providing a sealing interface between the seal assembly 22 and wellhead housing 18 engaging wickers 34 with wellhead housing 18 can also create a coupling which opposes axial respective movement between seal assembly 22 and wellhead housing that may be introduced by thermal expansion and other similar occurrences referring now to fig1 a an enlarged view of a portion of the wellhead assembly 10 is shown in side sectional view in this example wickers 34 are generally triangular elements with a tip 37 with sharp pointed ends the sharp ends reduce the force required to embed the wickers 34 into wellhead housing 18 and plastically deform the material of the wellhead housing 18 although the wickers 34 are shown as adjoining spaces may be included between adjacent wickers 34 or optionally spaces may exist between adjacent groups of wickers 34 in one example the distance between adjacent tips 37 is about 0 125 inches additionally the material of what is being deformed by the wickers 34 e g the casing 14 housing 18 or inlays.