Internal-Combustion Engine With Guided Roller Piston Drive

An internal-combustion engine with improved reciprocating operation, comprising at least one hollow cylinder, which contains a chamber for the evolution of a working fluid and has one end closed by a head and the opposite end closed by a piston which can slide with a reciprocating rectilinear motion in said chamber between a bottom dead center, providing the maximum distance from said head, and a top dead center, providing the minimum distance from said head, and a device for converting the reciprocating rectilinear motion of said piston into a rotary motion of an engine shaft, characterized in that said conversion device comprises:

• a push rod, which is substantially perpendicular to said engine shaft and in which a first end is connected to said piston and a second end is connected to at least one pin for supporting at least one pusher roller and at least one return roller;
• said rollers rotating in mutually opposite directions and being arranged so that their axis is substantially parallel to said engine shaft;
• a rotating contoured body, which is fixed to said engine shaft and is provided with at least one pusher circuit, along which said pusher roller travels, and at least one return circuit, along which said return roller travels, arranged on a plane which is perpendicular to said engine shaft;
• said pusher circuit is substantially concentric and similar to said return circuit, and both circuits are arranged on two different planes inside or outside said contoured body;
• at least one guiding arm, in which one end is associated with said pin for supporting said rollers and the opposite end is articulated so that it can move about an axis which is fixed and rigidly coupled to the structure of the engine and is substantially parallel to said engine shaft;
• said pusher and return circuits comprising respective circular arcs for the sliding of said pusher and return rollers which, when the piston is proximate to said top dead center, are suitable to keep the push rod and the piston in a substantially stationary configuration over a predefined space or angle of rotation of said rotating contoured body, the volume of said chamber remaining substantially constant until explosion has occurred.