Variable displacement compressor method and apparatus

An adjustable variable displacement compressor apparatus comprising:

• a housing;
• a cylinder bore defined in the housing;
• a piston accommodated in the cylinder bore;
• a drive shaft rotatably supported in the housing;
• a swash plate fitted to the drive shaft and supported to rotate integrally with the drive shaft while inclining, wherein the rotation of the swash plate causes reciprocation of the piston to draw refrigerant gas into the cylinder bore and to compress the drawn in gas, wherein the piston has a stroke that changes as the swash plate inclines;
• a rotor that rotates integrally with the drive shaft;
• a guiding mechanism provided between the swash plate and the rotor to guide the inclination of the swash plate to permit the swash plate to shift between a minimum inclination position and a maximum inclination position;
• and
• a restricting means for determining the maximum inclination position of the swash plate, the maximum inclination position of the swash plate being determined by the particular restricting means which is disposed in the housing, said restricting means including an urging means having axial length that expands and contracts for urging the swash plate toward the minimum inclination position, the maximum inclination position of the swash plate being determined in accordance with the axial length of the urging means in a fully contracted state.

A variable displacement compressor comprising:

• a housing;
• a cylinder bore defined in the housing;
• a piston accommodated in the cylinder bore;
• a drive shaft rotatably supported in the housing;
• a swash plate fitted to the drive shaft and supported to rotate integrally with the drive shaft while inclining, wherein the rotation of the swash plate causes reciprocation of the piston to draw refrigerant gas into the cylinder bore and to compress the drawn in gas, wherein the piston has a stroke that changes as the swash plate inclines;
• a rotor that rotates integrally with the drive shaft;
• and
• a guiding mechanism provided between the swash plate and the rotor to guide the inclination of the swash plate to permit the swash plate to shift between a minimum inclination position and a maximum inclination position, the guiding mechanism including a connecting pin formed integrally with the swash plate, a guiding bore defined in the rotor for slidably guiding the pin, and a restricting means to restrict the maximum inclination position of the swash plate, wherein the pin abuts against the restricting means, the maximum inclination position of the swash plate being determined in accordance with the abutment position of the restricting means and the connecting pin.

A variable displacement compressor comprising:

• a housing;
• a cylinder bore defined in the housing;
• a piston accommodated in the cylinder bore;
• a drive shaft rotatably supported in the housing;
• a swash plate fitted to the drive shaft and supported to rotate integrally with the drive shaft while inclining, wherein the rotation of the swash plate causes reciprocation of the piston to draw refrigerant gas into the cylinder bore and to compress the drawn in gas, wherein the piston has a stroke that changes as the swash plate inclines;
• a rotor that rotates integrally with the drive shaft;
• a guiding mechanism provided between the swash plate and the rotor to guide the inclination of the swash plate to permit the swash plate to shift between a minimum inclination position and a maximum inclination position;
• and
• a restricting means arranged to cooperate with the swash plate and the rotor to restrict the maximum inclination position of the swash plate, the restricting means urging the swash plate toward the minimum inclination position, the axial length of the restricting means being variable, and the maximum inclination position of the swash plate being determined in accordance with the length of the restricting means when the restricting means is in its shortest state.

An adjustable variable displacement compressor apparatus comprising:

• a housing;
• a cylinder bore defined in the housing;
• a piston accommodated in the cylinder bore;
• a drive shaft rotatably supported in the housing;
• a swash plate fitted to the drive shaft and supported to rotate integrally with the drive shaft while inclining, wherein the rotation of the swash plate causes reciprocation of the piston to draw refrigerant gas into the cylinder bore and to compress the drawn in gas, wherein the piston has a stroke that changes as the swash plate inclines;
• a rotor that rotates integrally with the drive shaft;
• a guiding mechanism provided between the swash plate and the rotor to guide the inclination of the swash plate to permit the swash plate to shift between a minimum inclination position and a maximum inclination position, said guiding mechanism including a connecting pin formed integrally with the swash plate and a guiding bore defined in the rotor for slidably guiding the pin;
• and
• a restricting means for determining the maximum inclination position of the swash plate, the maximum inclination position of the swash plate being determined by providing a selected one of the restricting means in the housing where the connecting pin can abut against the restricting means to restrict movement of the swash plate.