GB591781A - Improvements in or relating to rotary internal combustion engines - Google Patents

Abstract

591,781. Rotary engines. SNYDER, R. L. Sept. 8, 1944, No. 17196. Convention date, Aug. 5, 1943. [Class 110 (ii)] An internal-combustion engine of the geared vane type has one or more pairs of pistons 21, 23, connected together by arms 26, 28, which rotate freely on a shaft 8, and drive the shaft 8 through links and cranks coupled to pins 35 in discs 44, 45, which are keyed to the shaft 8. pinions 36, on the pins 35, rotate epicyclically around fixed gears 9 or 10. The drive may be transmitted through sealing rings 73, 74, Figs. 3 and 4. Each piston is supported on a pin 32 in an eccentric bearing 30, and is counterbalanced centrifugally by a weight 33. Fuel is supplied from a carburetter 51 to inlet ports 4, compressed between pairs of pistons, fired by a plug 14, and exhausted through ports 5. The fuel mixture may be supercharged, and a scavenging blower 50 connected to one or more exhaust ports. The engine may operate on the Diesel cycle. Lubricant is supplied by a pump 54 to a passage 59 in the shaft, which connects with radial ducts to various bearings. A flywheel 19 may be provided, and have driving teeth 20 on its periphery. The compression ratio and piston speeds may be varied by (a) varying the length of the piston ; (b) alteration of design and arrangement of inlet and exhaust ports ; (c) alteration of gear ratio. No inlet or exhaust valves are provided. The engine may operate on the two-stroke or fourstroke cycles. A gas seal for the inner peripheral slot comprises a split-ring bearing which extends into the slot and includes apertures having flexible faces 70 bearing on the sides of a connecting arm 26. Two separate sets of bearings 71, 72 allow two portions 73, 74 to reciprocate with respect to each other. Packing rings 80 are provided. Fig. 4 shows a modification having four pairs of pistons coupled respectively to two side-by-side rings carrying pins 92, 94 for the connecting rods 38, 39. Pins 34, 35 have pinions 36<1> keyed to them. These gear with fixed wheels 9 which may be adjustable, angularly, for timing the movements of the pistons with respect to the inlet and outlet ports. The engine may be made reversible by interchanging inlet and outlet ports 4, 5 through a cross-over valve 97. Two plugs 4, 14<1> are provided. In a further arrangement an auxiliary tubular shaft is rotatably mounted on the shaft 8, coupled to the pistons through additional gearing, which increases the speed of the main shaft. Another modification has two toroidal cylinders sideby-side with the firing points displaced angularly in the two cylinders, for balancing purposes. As a scavenging means, the cylinders may have nozzles, or auxiliary exhausts, connected to each other so that high-pressure exhaust gases from one can force out the residual exhaust gases from the other at the appropriate stroke positions. The principle may be applied to a single cylinder engine, and have nozzles supplying high-pressure gases to create a partial vacuum in the exhaust manifold in the neighbourhood of the main exhaust ports. A fresh air " breather " port may be arranged in the cylinder wall opposite exhaust port.