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US 4,362,014 AGranted
Rotary machines and power systems using said machines
AssigneeNone recorded
InventorsRonald W. Driver, Edwin J. Hardaker
Life of this patent
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AssigneeNone recorded
InventorsRonald W. Driver, Edwin J. Hardaker
Estimating the term…
A rotary machine, having a casing and a rotor rotatable eccentrically in the casing to define an eccentric annulus divided into compartments by vanes, to function either as a compressor or an expansion engine has the vanes pivoted at the rim of the rotor and driven by a mechanical coupling to their operative positions. The vanes are driven by cranks lying in planes outside but parallel to the planes in which the vanes operate. The vanes operate with a minimal clearance between vane tip and casing in order, ideally, to provide zero friction at the vane tip. A power system is disclosed in which air is compressed, heated in a flame tube, expanded under volume confined conditions in a rotary machine as described to an intermediate pressure, and expanded to ambient under volume confined conditions in another rotary machine as described. The machine may drive auxiliaries in a vehicle.
A power system comprising a rotary device (10) (conveniently called a "gas generator") of the kind having a rotor eccentrically disposed in a casing to establish an eccentric annulus divided into separate compartments each of which defines a confined void whose volume changes cyclically as the rotor rotates relative to the casing, means (12) for feeding compressed ambient cold air to said device (10) to compress the air further over a part of the eccentric annulus of the device, means (20) including a flame combustor for adding heat to said further compressed air, means allowing the heated further compressed air to expand partially in another part of the eccentric annulus of the rotary device (10) to generate power, means (24) auxiliary to the system utilizing said power, at least one further rotary device (11) (conveniently called a "drive engine") of the kind having a rotor eccentrically disposed in a casing to establish an eccentric annulus divided into separate compartments each of which defines a confined void whose volume changes cyclically as the rotor rotates relative to the casing, means (27) for conducting the partially expanded heated further compressed air to said further rotary device (11) to allow further expansion and generation of further power, valve means (29) for controlling the mass flow through the conducting means (27) and thereby change the back pressure at the rotary device (10) to change the speed of the rotary device (10), in which the rotary device (10) and said further rotary device (11) are devoid of mechanical drive coupling to each other;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Having the movement defined in group F01C1/08 or F01C1/22 and having a hinged member: with vanes hinged to the inner member
Charge admission or combustion-gas discharge: charging, e.g. by means of rotary-piston pump
With positive ignition: with fuel-air mixture admission into cylinder
Internal combustion engine [ICE] based vehicles: improving ICE efficiencies
Term ended 26 Dec 1999 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
This invention relates to rotary machines of the kind comprising:
(a) a casing;
(b) a rotor rotatable eccentrically in, or with one part of, the casing and having means to define with, or with another part of, the casing, peripheral compartments which are separate from each other;
The invention may be performed in various ways and a preferred embodiment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a rotor of a rotary machine embodying the invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic representation of a mechanical coupling for driving the vanes shown in FIG. 1;
In FIG. 1 there is shown a rotary engine having an engine rotor 200 with an axis 201 and a fixed truly cylindrical casing 202 with axis 203. The rotor 200 is seen to be eccentric in the casing 202 and defines with the casing an eccentric annulus 204. The rotor is rotatable on a static axle 205 and is equipped with twelve angularly spaced vanes 206 carried on pivots, indicated by axes 207, and running in the casing with a very small clearance between their tips and the casing. The vanes 206 are each respectively mechanically coupled to cranks 208 (now see FIG. 2) and the cranks are oscillated by respective connecting arms 209 mounted on a casing pillar 210, that is, about axis 203. The vanes define peripheral compartments 211 in the eccentric annulus which cyclically change in volume as the rotor rotates. The rotor is arranged for rotation in the direction of arrow A. The outer surface of the vanes 206 could be curved so that when the compartments have smallest volume this surface substantially conforms to the inner surface of the casing and has a running clearance therewith.
Components 200 to 210 are also indicated in FIG. 3 which will now be described.
The main static parts of the engine comprise the casing 202; casing pillar 210 with axis 203; and static axle 205 with axis 201.