Engine
AssigneeHarcourt Engine Pty Limited
InventorsDougal Lamont Harcourt, Robert James Selby, William Lewis White
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An engine includes a rotatable member with one or more cylinders disposed tangentially around its circumference. There are one or more corresponding pistons, each piston is associated with a piston lever pivoted eccentric to the rotatable member. Movement of each piston is controlled so that combustion energy is transmitted to the rotatable member by the cylinder moving away from the piston. Both the cylinders and pistons rotate continuously relative to a stationary part of the engine.
Claims16
An engine including one or more cylinder and piston groups disposed in or on a rotating member, the longitudinal axis of the one or more cylinder and piston groups being orientated tangential to the rim of the rotating member, and wherein both the cylinders and pistons rotate continuously relative to a stationary part of the engine.
An engine including:
- a rotatable member;
- one or more cylinders disposed around the circumference of the rotatable member, the longitudinal axis of the cylinders being tangential to the circumference of the rotatable member;
- and
- one or more pistons, each piston associated with a corresponding cylinder,
- the engine characterised in that each piston is associated with a piston lever pivoted eccentric to the rotatable member and wherein movement of each piston is controlled such that combustion energy is transmitted to the rotatable member by the cylinder moving away from the piston.
An engine as claimed in any preceding claim wherein an energy stroke delivered to the rotatable member is longer than a combustion stroke of the piston.
An engine as claimed in any preceding claim wherein a compression stroke assists in supplying rotational energy to the rotatable member.
An engine as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the proximal ends of piston lever from two or more diametrically opposed pistons are joined or linked so that excursion of a piston on an compression stroke assists the excursion of a diametrically opposed piston on a compression stroke.
An engine as claimed in any preceding claim wherein one or more weights are associated with the one or more piston levers, centrifugal force acting on the weights to aid excursion of the pistons within the cylinders.
An engine as claimed in any preceding claim wherein substantially all of the force exerted in movement between the cylinders and pistons is along the longitudinal axis of the cylinders thereby reducing the effect of cylinder bore side thrust.
An engine as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the force generated at the cylinders is delivered directly to an output shaft without the intervention of any other mechanical parts.
An engine as herein described with reference to any one of the accompanying drawings.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.