US2264648A - Explosion engine - Google Patents

Description

2, 1941. A. TEBALDI I v 2,264,648

. EXPLOSION ENGINE Filed Aug. 16, 1938 6 Sheets-Sheet l ATEBAbDI W MVS IINVENTOR Dec. 2, 1941.

A. T EQALDI I EXPLOSION ENGI'NE Filed Aug. 16, 1938 e Sheets-Sheet 2 A TEBALDI W ATTYS.

' Dec. 2, 1941.

- A. TEBALDI I EXPLOSION ENGINE Filed Aug. 16, 1958 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 -A;,TEBA'LJUI Dec. 2,- 1941. A. TEBALDI 2,

EXPLOSZION ENGINE v Filed Aug. 16, 1938 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 mvsnfba A. TEBALD} 5y z a Arr-vs.

Patented Dec. 2, 1941 UNITED STATE s PATENT OFFICE EXPLOSION ENGINE Al .lebaldi, Milan-Italy Application August 3 Claims.

This invention relates to multi-cyllnder four stroke explosion engines particularly of high power class, and it comprises an engine in which an explosion chamber cooperates with two or more cylinders arranged at an angle to each other, the pistons operative in said cylinders ac- 16,1938, Serial No. 225,243

August 30, 1937 tuating crank shafts mounted adjacent the ends I central portion of the engine while the respective crank shafts are located at the periphery of the engine and impart their rotation to a main driving shaft or to a number of main driving shafts.

The present invention thus provides an engine which has a large number of cylinders as useful to reduce the size and weight of the reciprocating masses, the load operative on the bearings and the extent of the piston strokes, while at the same time it includes a restricted number of explosion chambers with the advantage of an improved thermic efllciency and of a more simple organization of the distributing gears.

Some embodiments of this invention are illustrated on the annexed drawings and- Fig. l is a transverse section'of an engine of this invention with four radialcylinders said section being made on a plane extending through the cylinder axes;

Fig.2 is a similar sectidn of an eight radial cylinder en ine;

Fig. 3 shows diagrammatically the respective position of the mouths of four cylinders providing a cylinder set as opening in the cooperating explosion chamber;

4 is a diagrammatic view similar to Fig. 3 in connection with a modified arrangement of cylinders;

ster-groups each similar to that illustrated in Fig. 7, said section being substantially on the line 8-8 of Fig. '7;

is a side view with parts in section of an engine similar to that illustrated in Fig. 8 with a modified valve arrangement;

Fig. 10 is a diagrammatic perspective view of ,the transmission gear intermediate the shafts ea'ch cooperating with the piston or pistons of a cylinder or of a cylinder row and a central driving shaft in connection with engines of the class shown in Figs. 8 and 9; v

Fig. 11 is a diagrammatic side view with parts in section of an engine including two concentric driving shaftsand Fig. 12 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the transmission gear intermediate the crank shafts cooperating with the cylinder pistons and the central driving shafts.

In the embodiment of Fig. 1, the reference 8 is aflixed to a structure in which four cylinders 2, 3, 2, 2' are located, said cylinders being arranged in two sets; one of said sets includes the 9 two cylinders 2, 3 which extend from a casing 4 crank shafts i0 and ii supported as convenwhich provides an explosion chamber 5. Pistons 5 and i reciprocate in the cylinders 2 and 3 and their respective connecting rods 8 and 9 engage cases 32', 33'.

A drum 36 is provided intermediate the two casings d, d enclosing the explosion chambers 5, 5'; in said drum a rotary distributor or valve I2 is located which has at one end.a pinion i3 'meshing with a pinion it fast on a shaft l5 driven by the intermediate of pinion 35, 36 and shaft 59, the means for actuation of shaft l9 by a main driving shaft of the engine being hereinafter described.

- The distributor i2 provides two aide. parts i2f which when said distributor is rotated are carried in timed succession'in front of the mouths 5" of chambers 5 and 5 and lead respectively to an inlet duct it connected with a conventional source of explosive fuel mixture and with an outlet l1. i Y

Means as ducts 31 and provide for a fluid circulation through the intermediate space I2 of said sleeve I2 for the purpose of cooling it.

Said distributor I2 is driven in rotation with a rotary speed which may be one fourth or one half of the rotary speed of the crank shafts I0, II, III, II'; accordingly an explosion occurs at the same time in both chambers 5, each two revolutions of said crank shafts or explosions will occur'alternately in said chambers 5, 5' one at each revolution. M

Of course suitable conventional ignition means as a plug 46 provided to promote the ignition of the operative mixture in said chambers i, i.

The four crank shafts III, II, III. II' are connected with a single central driving shaft or with two separate driving shafts by means of a gearing as hereinafter described.

During the operation the usual operative cycle of four stroke explosion engines develops separately in each of the two chambers 5, 5' each of which is common to a set of two cylinders. Consequently each explosion in each chamber causes a stroke in the same direction and through the same extent of the two pistons of the co.- operating cylinder set; the power development is thus shared on two separate sets of mechanical transmission gears.

The arrangement i such as the two crank shafts of each set as III and II are revolving in opposed directions; each system comprising a piston, a rod, a crank and a crank shaft as 6, 8, III thus develops on the structure I comprising the cooperating cylinders, crank shaft bearings and crank cases, as 2, 32 and 2', 32', stresses which are at any time equal and directly opposed to stresses developed on said structure by a similar system as 6', 8', III which operates in the opposed direction; accordingly in the whole star cylinder structure all the stresses compensate for each other and said star structure is balanced.

The engine shown invFig. 2 is similar to that described in respect of Fig. 1 but four cylinders cooperate with each explosion chamber and more particularly the cylinders 2, 3, 3a., 2a radiate from casing 4 providing an explosion chamber 5 and the cylinders 2', 3', i'a, 2'a radiate from casing 4' providing the chamber 5' said cylinders being diametrically opposed two by two with re spect to a centre line intermediate the casings 4, 4' and coextensive therewith.

A drum 34 having ports 5" is provided intermediate said casings 5, 5' and a rotary distributor I2 cooperates with it, the arrangement and actuation of the distributor I2 being made as described in connection with Figure 1.

In the illustrated construction the arrangement is such as the crank shafts III, II, Ila, ms and III, II, '11, W0. of each cylinder set which are connected by rods 8, 9, 9a, 8a and 8', 9', 9'a, 8'a with the pistons 6, I, la, 60 and 6', I, 1'0, 6'0 rotate in pairs in opposed directions as shown by the arrows in Fig. 2.

In the arrangement of Fig. 2 the cylinders 2, 3, 3a, 2a and 2', 3', 3'a, 2a may be arranged with their axes in a single plane as evidenced by the diagram of Fig. 3 which shows in perspective fie respective "positions of the mouths of the cy ders 2, 3, 3a, 2a in the casing 4; should it be desired to reduce the angularspan of the explosionv chamber 5, 5 said cylinders of each group may be staggered or lie in adjacent parallel planes as shown in Fig. 4 in respect of cylinders 2, 3, 3a, 2a. in the above defined manner.

Fig. 5 illustrates another embodiment of an eight-cylinder star arrangement in which the cylinders of a set as 2, 3, 3a, 2a are not radially arranged and they do not lie on the extension of the axis'of the respectivecylinders 2', 3', 3a, 2a of the other set to provide pairs therewith.

In this construction .two explosion chambers as 5, 5a, and 5', 5'1: are provided in respect of each cylinder set, each of said chambers coopcrating with two cylinders.

As above described the explosion chambers provide a drum 34 for a rotary distributor I2 driven by the shaft I5 as above described. The mixture inlet duct I6 is located with advantage intermediate the pairs of adjacent explosion chambers 6, 5a, 5', 5'a while the exhaust occurs through the central outlet II of said distributor.

The arrangement-in this construction is such as the shafts III and II of the cylinder 2, 3 of the set cooperating with explosion chamber 5 rotate both in the same direction, while the crank shafts Ila, Illa of the set of cylinders 3a, 2a cooperating with the explosion chamber Sa. revolve in the same direction this direction being opposed to that of crank shafts III and II; similar respective conditions exist in connection with the cylinders of the opposed sets. The whole star structure is thus balanced.

Instead of having two opposed cylinder sets as in the above described embodiments, a singleset of cylinders extending from one or more explosion chambers each common to two cylinders at least, may be d.

Such an arrange ent of the cylinders which may be referred as a fan arrangement, is illustrated in Fl 6; this embodiment includes four cylinders 2, 3a, 2a radiating from a casing 4 which provides an explosion chamber 5, while the other parts are similar to those of above described embodiments and are similarly referenced.

Figure 7 illustrates an embodiment in which each cylinder set cooperating with one and the same explosion chamber as 5, 5' includes three cylinders 2, 3, 3a, 2', 3', 3'0. in which pistons 6, I, la, 6', I, To reciprocate, said pistons actuating the crank shafts I0, II, IIa, III, II, II'a, by means of connecting rods 8, 9, 9a, 8, 9', Sa.

The two cylinder sets are carried by a single structure I and are provided with a rotary distributor I2 actuated by a shaft I5 in the above described manner; the two cylinder sets are rigidly interconnected say by means of the rods I8, to entirely balance the actions developing in each star structure I.

In any case. the engine may include a number of star sets or of fan sets arranged at the side of each other, their adjacent cylinders providing a number of aligned rows.

Figure 8 illustrates by way of example an engine which includes six star set each of the type shown by Fig. '7 and having a rotary distributor I2; all said distributors are actuated through the intermediate of respective shafts I5 by a shaft I9 (Fig. 7) which extends along the engine on a side thereof.

Fig. 9 illustrates an arrangement in which the distributor is arranged longitudinally of the engine and on the axis thereof. Further, in this construction the engineincludes six star-cylinder structures each including two sets of three cylinders of the kind shown in Fig. 7; a. drum 20 extends along the whole of the star sets and a distributor sleeve 2| is mounted to rotate within said drum, said sleeve being driven by one of the crank shafts, as Il through the intermediate of a train of pinions 22. Said sleeve 2| is connected with the source of explosive mixture (not shown) and in register with ports 5" of the excooling circulation therein.

As to the transmission of the power developed by the several cylinder sets or rows, the pistons of all the cylinders aligned with each other in I the several adjacent sets are connected with a single crank shaft and thus each row of cylinders operate like an engine having aligned cylinders.

Each of said crank shafts is provided with pinions 25, 25' (Figs. 8 and 9) which impart the drive to one or more shafts which provide the engine driving shaft or shafts. V

The transmission gear between each of said crank shafts and said main driving shaft or shafts must be designed to comply with the requirement that one half of said crank shafts must rotate in one direction and the other half must rotate in the-opposite one.

In the construcflon of Figs. 8 and 9 the engine includes a single main or driving shaft having a pinion 21 fast thereon which meshes with the pinions 25 of a number of said crank shafts while the pinions 25' of the other crank shafts drive the pinion 21'by the intermediate of a reversing pinions 28, 29 geared intermediate the pinions 25' and- 21.

Figure 10 shows diagrammatically and in perspective view the above stated transmission gear, said figure displaying only'two crank shafts Ila and ll'c intended to rotate in opposed directions. The pinion 25 fast on the shaft' ll'a is directly in mesh with the .central pinion '21 fast with the shaft 26 while the pinion 25'. of the shaft l [a meshes with another pinion 28 fast with engaged together by'a suitable gear to comply with the obvious requirement that the rotation of said oppositely rotating main 'shafts'must' be synchronous.

Figurell illustrates an engine having two con- 3 meshes with the pinion 21 and the pinion 25' is in'mesh with pinion 21'; further pinions 30 and 3| are provided which are fast with each other and'have a diameter equal to that of pinions 25,

" 25'; the pinion is in mesh with'the main pinion 21. while pinion 3| is in mesh with the pinion 25'.

25' are engaged angularly'with each other by the gearing 21, 30, 3| and thus the main shafts 26, 26' rotate in opposed directions withan equal number of revolutions per minute.

The described engine is adapted to develop very high powers in satisfactory conditions in respect of the construction, weight and balance of the engine, while the'number of the parts devoted to distribution and ignition are reduced to I a minimum. Further the cooling of engine which may be secured by water jackets or air circulation is made more simple and the power output may be taken off in different manners according to requirements.

What I claim as my invention" and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. A multi-cylinder explosion engine comprising a casing providing a number of adjacent chambers at each of opposite sides thereof, means for timely connecting each of said chambers with an operative fluid inlet and outlet, means for igniting said fluid'in each of said chambers. sets of cylinders radiating from said casing, each of said sets including for each. of said chambers a number of cylinders adjacent to each other and opening at one of their ends in the same end of the respective chamber, crank-oases each at the casing-spaced ends of one of said cylinders, crank-shafts each in one of said crank-cases, pistons each reciprocating in one of said cylinders, rods connecting the pistons of said cylin-' ders with said crank-shafts of the respective crank-cases, at, least a power output shaft, and means connecting said power output shaft with said crank-shafts.

2. A multi-cylinder explosion engine comprising an elongated casing providing a number of adjacent chambers located at each of opposite sides thereof and in a succession extending in the longitudinal direction of said casing, means for timely connecting each of said chambers with i an operative fluid inlet and outlet, means for lgniting said fluid in each of said chambers, sets of cylinders radiating from said casing, each of centric main shafts 26, 26' which are required to rotate in opposed directions and which have pinions 21, 21' fast thereon respectively the pinion 21 being engaged by the pinions 25 which rotate all in onegiven direction whilst the pinion 21' is engaged by all the pinions 25' which ro-' tate in the opposed direction; said .shafts 26, 25' are interconnected by a gear adapted to secure their synchronous rotation as hereinafter de scribed in connection with Fig. l2.

In Fig. 12, two pinions'25 and 25' fast on reversely rotating crank shafts l6'a, Ida and two pinions 21, 21' fast with main driving shafts 25, 26' respectively, are illustrated. The pinion .25

crank-shafts of the respective crank-cases, at j said sets including for each of said chambers a number. of cylinders adjacent to each, other and opening at one of their ends in the same end of the respective chamber, said cylinders of said sets providing a number of parallel rows extending along said casing, crank-cases eachlat the casing-spaced ends of said cylinders of one'of said rows, crank-shafts each inone of saidcrank-cases, pistons each reciprocating in one of said cylinders. rods connecting the pistons of said cylinders of each of said rows with said least a power output shaft and means connecting said power outputshaft with said crank-shafts.

3. A multi-cylinder explosion engine comprising an elongated casing providing a number of adjacent chambers located at each of opposite sides thereof and in a successionextending in the longitudinal direction of said casing, means for timely connecting each of said chambers with an operative fluid inlet and outlet, means for ignifing said fluid in eachof said chambers, sets of cylinders radiating fromsaid casing, each of By the described arrangement the pinions 25,

4 &284,848

an even niimber of cylinders adjacent to each other with their axes substantially co-planar and opening at one of their ends in the same.

end of the respective chamber, said cylinders of said sets providing a number of parallel rows extending along said easing, crank-cases each at the casing-spaced end: of said cylinders of one of said rows crank-shaite each in one of shafts.

ALESSANDRO TEBAIDI.

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