GB595465A - Improvements relating to regenerative heaters - Google Patents

Abstract

595,465. Regenerators. NEWTON, CHAMBERS, & CO., Ltd., and WATKINSON, E. March 12, 1945, No. 6170. [Class 64 (i)l In a regenerator having a stationary cylindrical regenerative mass 11 and a distributing valve mechanism made in two parts, one on each side of the mass and each including a circular ported plate 26, the mechanism being rotatable as a whole on a central vertical shaft 25 to provide an alternating vertical flow first of hot gas and then of cold gas through each part of the regenerative mass, the central shaft 25 is carried in bearings 20 lying within two of the passages through which the gases flow, so that the shaft 25 is enclosed in the regenerator, and the valve mechanism is driven through the periphery of one of the ported plates, e.g., by the engagement of a rack 34 with a pinion 36 on the shaft of an electric motor 24. A roller 38 holds the rack in mesh with the pinion. Each part of the valve mechanism is enclosed in a stationary chamber 15 with two ports 16, 17, and comprises a plate 26 with two sector-shaped ports 31, and two interconnected port-conical walls 39, 41 which form a passage connecting the central port 16 to one of the ports 31. In the form shown in which air being heated flows downwardly through the central openings 16, each bearing is provided by a bar 20 extending across the opening 16, and the weight of the shaft and valve mechanism is taken by a thrust bearing 28 supported within the cold air inlet. Alternatively, the part conical walls 39, 41 may be so arranged that gas entering through a central port 16 leaves by a non-central port 17 at the other end.