US 4,389,843 AGranted

Water wave energy transducer

OwnerJohn Lambertiinventor

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Abstract

A water wave energy transducer comprises a boat having pivoted arms projecting out over the water, a float being mounted on the outboard end of each arm so that the arms are oscillated by wave action on the floats. Drive sprockets fixed on the arms coaxially with their pivots are connected by drive chains with two driven sprockets coaxial, respectively, with two gears which mesh with one another and one of which meshes with an output gear. The driven sprockets are coupled with the coaxial gears by one-way clutches which are oppositely arranged so that one drives when the sprockets turn in one direction and the other drives when the sprockets turn in the opposite direction. Hence, the output gear is driven in the same direction by both upward and downward movement of the floats. The output gear is connected by a speed increasing gear train with an electric generator which can supply current to a motor for propelling the boat, or through a cable to the shore when the boat is anchored.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A water wave energy transducer comprising a floating vessel having a bow and a stern, a set of three laterally spaced forwardly extending support means at the bow of said vessel and a set of three laterally spaced rearwardly extending support means at the stern of said vessel, each of said sets comprising a port side support, a central support, and a starboard side support, a first shaft extending between and rotatably supported by said port side support and said central support, a second shaft extending between and rotatably supported by said starboard side support and said central support, said first and second shafts being aligned but independently rotatable, a bifurcated fitting fixed on each of said shafts, an arm having an inboard end fixed to each of said bifurcated fittings and having a float on its outboard end, said arms at the stern of the vessel extending rearwardly and said arms at the bow of the vessel extending forwardly, a drive gear rotatably mounted in said vessel, and power transmitting means coupling said shafts with said drive gear, said power transmitting means including means for converting independent oscillatory movement of said shafts produced by rising and falling of said floats and pitching and/or rolling of said vessel into undirectional rotary motion of said drive gear.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.