US2352877A - Rotary engine - Google Patents

Description

July 4, 1944.

' H. F. WOLSTENHOLME ROTARY ENGINE Filed March 30 1942 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY July 4, 1944. H. F. WOLSTENHOLME ROTARY ENGINE Filed March 30, 1942 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Harry FWOZSYJIIJIOZ'M, I

ATTQRNEX I y .1944- H. F. WOLSTENHOLME 2,352,8 77

ROTARY ENGINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 30, 1942 diiorne y.

in such engines in that it makes Patented July 4,1944

A 5 UNITED PATENT omcg;

.j 12,352,877 I -R01ARI ENGINE Harry F. Wolstenho1me, Paterson, N. l y

- Application-MarchflO, 1942, Serial No. 436,756

" Claims, (o1.- 121-49) This invention relates torotary fluid engines (-bywhich I mean either an'engin'e which acts to impel or pump, or which is driven by, a fluid) of the tivpe in which the principal movi'ng' parts include what is herein termed a rotor element or rotor and'an oscillator element or oscillator, the former "havingspaced abutments in the cylinder and the latter having a piston in the cylinder between the abutments; incidentally, in such engines either the cylinder-includingelement or the rotor may undergo rotation, though usually it is the latter. The invention is an improvement it possible to have the fluid acted on, as in the case ofapump',

or to act, as in the case where the rotation is fluid-effected, at each side of the piston-em each side of each piston or each abutment if, as usual,

there is a plurality of each.

My invention is predicated on an engine of the indicated, class inwhich means, carried by the i rotor and including a rotary member "(in the example shown, taking the form of a planetgear meshing with a sun-gear on the cylinderincluding structure) tractively engaged with a portion of the cylinder-including element circumferentially of the cylinder and concentric with its axis, is present to move the oscillator relatively to the rotor through a given-number of complete back-and-for th strokes on each complete'cycle, Ora-completerotation, of one of the'fir'stitwo -elernents-relatively to the other. (Wherever hereinaiter'used the termstroke" is taken" as a synonym for back-and-forth strokej) With such a means present, while the oscillator 'oisc'il lates with reference to the rotor, with respect to the cylinder-including element it undergoes long advances when it is moved forward, and advances at best shorter than such long advances when it is moved backward, relatively to said rotor while meanwhile moving with it. t

It will facilitate an understanding of my inven tion first to regard the engine as a pump. Accordingto the invention the piston should have that lengthwise segment thereof which in passing the intake and exhaust ports immediately adjoins the same not greater than the advance attained by such segment relatively to the cylinder during the backward part of any of said strokes of the oscillator; and to attain complete compression and hence efiiciency the length of said seginfent should be less than the over-all lei'igth of, the piston (wherefore the piston will not have the usual radial planiform faces) andthe adjoining faces of the abutments should he so' formedjas substantially "to parallel said'end faces ofthe piston. The intake port is arranged forward of and adjacent the point which the forward end of said segment attains at the end of the pistons long advance, and the exhaust port (with respect to the charge received at that intake port) is arranged rearward of and adjacent the point which the aft end of said segment attains at the end of a subsequent long advance of the piston. If said segment of the piston has the "indicated length and the ports are arranged as specified then intake will occur first between the piston and the forward abutment (in the interval -between long advances, as on a short advance, of the piston) and then between the'piston and the rearward abutment (during the interval of long advance of the piston); and exhaust will occur first between the piston and forward abutment (during the interval of long advance of thepiston) and then between the piston and rearward abutment (in the interval between longadvances, as on a short advance, of the piston). and; as noted, if said segment has "less lengththan the over-all length of the piston (as bythe piston having converging end faces, as herein shown) and the; adjoining faces of the abutments are tor-med substantially to parallel said endfaces of the piston there will be good compression and the maximum efliciency. x

Next, assume the engine'is one which is fluidimpelled, as an internal combustion engine of the four-cycle type. Here the means which"transmits oscillations tothe piston shouldbgsuch that the oscillator will undergo a given'number of complete revol ltionof'that one of the two ele ments including the rotor'and cylinder which rotates, one of such double strokesjfbeing for intake and compression and'theother for explosion and exhaust. The construction and operation of the engine will in such case be essentially the same as already indicated except {or the presence of an igniter, asja sparkplug," between the two ports and to be operative, with compression, with respect to one 'back-and-forth stroke of the oscillator while thereafter explosion and exhaust take place with respect to, theother such stroke. f flj In the drawings, I

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved engine, here of the internal-combustion type, with apprtion of the near half of the casing of the fixed structure broken away nd. the osciIlatorat the beginning of a'short stroki l 'Fig.2'isa section on line 2-1,. Fig. l; Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig; 1' but showing the cylinder, here six in number.

The fixed structure in Figs. 1 to 3 may be pro vided by two substantially similar casing sections; 15.;

I shaped to include the halves of an annular cylinder 2 having a continuous slot 3the casing affording central bearings 4 in which is journaled the main shaft 5and a sun-gear 6 concentric with the cylinder. Fast on the shaft is the rotor 1 whose rim portion extends through the slot and .is equipped with equally spaced abutments B in Free to turn on the shaft is the oscillator 9 whose rim also extends through the slot and has equally spaced pistons l0, alternating with the abutments. (The rotor and oscillatorseal the slot.) The preferred shapes of the abutments and pistons will be hereinafter explained. A planet-gear H is in mesh with the sun-gear and means to transmit motion to the oscillator from such gear here includes a link l2 pivotally connecting eccentric points y and a: of the planet-gear and oscillator.

For each complete rotation of the rotor the oscillator should undergo a given number of complete 'back-and-forth strokes, or here six, which in any case means that the circumference ofthe planetgear at its pitch-line should be equal to the width .of any of equal-width segments of the sun-gear at its pitch-line. The igniters, as spark-plugs, are indicated at l3, here three in number, equally spaced and operatively exposed to the interior of the cylinder. An intake port I4 is shown rotatively aft and an exhaust port rotativelyforward of each spark-plug; the rotation of the engine may be in either direction, but it is here assumed to be clockwise. e

Referring, now, to the diagram, 5, in which for simplicity I have shown; the sungear jand planet-gear in a different ratio from that of Figs. 1 and .3, to wit, so that the planet-gear undergoes but four complete rotations to one complete rotation of the rotor; but the ratio is immaterial so long as in the case of a four-cycle engine the oscillator undergoes a given number of double back-and-forth strokes for each complete rotation of the engine. The rotor is assumed to be rotating at constant speed in the direction of the arrow and, in this diagram, the oscillator undergoes alternately short and long advances short, from a position in which a spoke 9a thereof is here assumed to register (merely to simplify the explanation) with the trailing rotor spoke Ia of the rotor to the dotted position, and long, from the first-named position to that in which it registers with the rotor'spoke 1a when the rotor has advanced one'quarter of its cycle, or to its dotted position. This is due to some given positioning of the pivot y of the planet-gear and the pivot a: of the oscillator. Thus, with pivot 1] atleast near the limit of its forward throw, being substantially within the pitch-line circumference of and also in a diameter of the planet-gear thatis perpendicular to a radius of the rotor coincident. with the axis of the planet-gear, thenwhen the latter turns a half-revolution (or from the full-line to the dotted-line position) the oscillator will undergo its short forward advance and when the planet-gear turns the next half-revolution, or again to the full-line position, the oscillator will undergo its long forward advance, or move from registry (here) with spoke la to registry with spoke 1b of the rotor.

(The length of the short advance is not material; in fact it may be, reduced more or less or quite to nil, so that in the latter case there would be no advance whatever in the interval between long advances but rather actual pauses relatively to the rotor, as if the pivot at 1/ were so located that in the two half-revolutions of the planetgear as shown by Fig. 5 the two points such pivot assumes would be the base apexes of an isosceles I triangle.

But as to this see hereafter.)

If, as shown in Figs. 6 to 9, the length of that lengthwise segment of the piston which in passing a given point of the cylinder immediately adjoins such point hasa length not greatenthan each advance attained by such segment relatively to the cylinder during the backward part of any back-and-forth stroke of the oscillator then it is only a matter of placing each intake port, igniter and exhaust port, in the proper cooperative positions, or substantially as shown and as follows: the intake forward of and adjacent the point which the forward end of said segment attains at the end of the pistonslong advance; the igniter (rotatively forward of the intake) forward of and adjacent the point which the forward end of said segment attains at the end of the pistonsnext long advance; and, the exhaust port (rotatively forward of the igniter) rearward of the point which the aft end of said segment attains at the end of a subsequent long advance of thev piston.

Now since the engine so far described is of the impelled type, with presence of igniters, the said segment will be that lengthwise portion of ;each piston which in passing the igniter immediately adjoins the same. The acting faces of the pistons and abutments might be radial excepting that perfect efiiciency would not be possible in that when the space between any piston andabutment is fully contracted such space would be too capacious for full compression: whetherthe abut,- ments be increased in length or the pistons short 'ened, or vice versa, in seeking to avoid this,,either a piston or an abutment wouldin suchcase at one end of the short advance of the piston eclipse the igniten, Hence to attain adequate compression the remainder of each piston is made longer than such segment, hereby forming the end faces of the piston to converge, andthe abutments are formed with their end faces substantially paralleling those of the piston, wherebyit is possible to devise the pistons and abutments withsuch' over-all lengths that when any piston is at the end of a throw in either direction its end face will be sufficiently close to the end face of an abutment to attain proper compression, the eclipsing being avoided. The endfaces of the pistons and abutments being thus biased, the intake and exhaust ports may be, as shown, lozenge-shaped, with those sides of each intake port which cross the cylinder parallel-with the leading face of the piston and the corresponding sides of the exhaust port parallel with thejaft face of the piston. v 1, q

In the diagram Figs. 6 to 9 only one oscillator piston and two abutments are shown, as. the pie-.- ton and abutment shown by fulllines; at the extreme right in Fig. 1 and the abutment antie clockwise adjoining such piston. The rotation is assumed to be clockwise, as per the arrows shown. In Fig. 6 the leading abutment and piston are about to undergo movement on explosion and the following abutment the movement for compression. In Fig. '7 the leading abutment and piston (the former having advanced from radius I to radius II) are about to undergo movement for exhaust and the following abutment movement on explosion. In Fig. 8 the leading abutment and piston (the former having advanced to position III) are about to undergo movement for intake and the following abutment movement on exhaust. And in Fig. 9 the leading abutment and piston (the former being advanced from radius III to radius IV) are about to undergo movement for compression and the following abutment movement for intake. The intake ports i4 and exhaust ports l5 are here shown by broken lines merely to facilitate distinguishing them. In these Figs. 6 to 9, as also in Fig. 1, each piston and adjoining abutment undergo the mentioned four operations three times during one complete revolution of the abutment, as evident from the three igniters l3 shown. 7

Now it will be obvious to any one skilled in this art that the engine may be a pump by simply omitting the igniters and arranging. the intake and exhaust ports so that both would be operative during a single back-and-forth stroke of the oscillator instead of, as in the case of a fourcycle internal-combustion engine, the intake ports being operative on the alternate and the exhaust ports on the remaining strokes. Fig. 4 is present to show the engine as so altered and with receiving and discharge spaces l8l9 with which the intake and exhaust ports would be respectively arranged to communicate.

Whether the engine be of the fiuid-impelling or fluid-impelled type, the novel fundamental isgiven the cylinder-including, rotor and oscillator elements, the oscillator having a piston between two abutments on the rotor, and the means, substantially as described, to oscillate the oscillator during relative rotation of the first two elements-that that lengthwise segment of the piston which in passing the intake and exhaust ports immediately adjoins the same has a length not greater than the advance attained by such segment relatively to the cylinder-including element during the backward part of any stroke of the oscillator element. If such length be less than the over-all length of the piston and the faces of the abutments which adjoin the piston are substantially parallel with faces of the latter the space between the piston and either abutment when it is closest to the latter may be of the minimum capacity for good compression.

It has been indicated that the length of the short advance of the piston is not material-- that it may be actually reduced to nil-in which case the form of each piston as viewed in side elevation (Figs. 1 and 2) would not be a truncated triangle but a triangle complete with an apex. In such case it would only be a matter of timing the action of the igniter (assuming the engine is an internal-combustion engine) to obtain explosion first as to the charge compressed ahead and then as to the charge compressed aft of the piston.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A rotary engine including an element itself including an annular cylinder having a slot extending continuously of the cylinder around the main cylinder-axis and also having an intake port and an exhaust port, a rotor projecting through said slot and having spaced abutments in the cylinder, one such element being rotatable around 7 said axis relatively to the other, an oscillator element rotative around said axis and projecting through the slot and having a piston in the cylinder movable from either abutment into proximity to the other abutment, and means, carried by the rotor element and including a rotary member tractively engaged with a portion of the firstnamed element circumferential of the cylinder and concentric with said axis, to move the oscillator element relatively to the rotor element through a given number of complete back-andforth strokes on each complete rotation of the rotary one of the first two elements, said'piston having a lengthwise segment thereof which in passing said intake and exhaust ports immediately adjoins the same of a length not greater than the advance attained by said segment relatively to the first-named element during the backward part of any stroke of the oscillator element, and said intake port being arranged forward of and adjacent the point which the forward end of said segment attain at the end of any long advance of the piston and said exhaust port being arranged rearward of and adjacent the point which the aft end of said segment attains at the end of the pistons subsequent long advance.

2. The engine set forth in claim 1 characterized by the length of said segment being less than the over-all length of the piston and by the faces of the abutments which adjoin the piston being arranged to besubstantially parallel with the end faces of the piston when the piston and abutment are in close proximity to each other.

3. The engine set forth in claim 1 characterized by the end faces of the piston converging toward said segment and by the end. faces of the abutments which next adjoin the piston converging in the relatively opposite direction.

HARRY F. WOLSTENHOLME.

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