US 4,483,141 AGranted

Stirling cycle engine having shaft seal means

AssigneesRiken, Aisin Seiki Kabushika

InventorsDaisaku Kobayashi, Tsunesaku Itaba, Yutaka Momose

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Abstract

A stirling cycle engine including a working piston defining a working chamber, a crankshaft located in a crankchamber, a connecting rod connecting the working chamber with the crankshaft, the connecting rod being passed through intermediate members. A gas seal structure is provided in the intermediate members around the connecting rod, the gas seal structure including a first oil chamber and a second oil chamber, the second oil chamber being located closer to the crankchamber than the first oil chamber, a resilient sealing ring disposed between the first and second oil chambers and having an outer surface tapered toward the crankchamber to reduce diameter thereof, a spring for biasing the sealing ring toward the crankchamber so that the outer surface of the sealing ring is urged to an opposing surface formed in one of the intermediate members. The first oil chamber is subjected to a pressure proximity to a minimum pressure produced in the working chamber, whereas the second oil chamber to the atmospheric pressure.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A stirling cycle engine including working piston means defining working chamber means, crankshaft means located in crankchamber means, connecting rod means connecting the working chamber means with said crankshaft means, said connecting rod means being passed through intermediate member means, gas seal means provided in said intermediate member means around said connecting rod means, said gas seal means including first oil chamber means and second oil chamber means, said second oil chamber means being located closer to said crankchamber means than said first oil chamber means, resilient sealing ring means disposed between said first and second oil chamber means and having an outer surface tapered toward said crankchamber means to reduce diameter thereof, spring means for biasing said sealing ring means toward said crankchamber means so that said outer surface of the sealing ring means is urged to an opposing surface formed in said intermediate member means, means for introducing into said first oil chamber means a pressure proximity to a minimum pressure produced in said working chamber means, means for opening the second oil chamber means to atmosphere.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.