US2117662A - Engine assembly - Google Patents

Description

'May 17,` 1938.

J. o. HElNzE yENGINE ASSEMBLY FiledJam 25. 1936 INVENTR May 17, 1938. JiQHE'lNzE Y 2,117,662

ENGINE i ASSEMBLY Filed Jan. 23. 1956 SSheets-Sheet 3 ATTORNEYS Patented May 17', 1938 UNITED STATES ENGINE ASSEIWBLY John 0. Heinze, Detroit, Mich., assigner to Heinze Development Company, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application January 23, 1936, Serial No. 60,365

4 Claims.

This invention relates to an internal combustion engine of the eccentric piston type, and its object is to simplify, perfect and reduce the cost of manufacture ofmotors and compressors of this type, and to combine such a compressor and motor in a single unit to provide a perfected internal combustion engine.

A further object is to provide a construction wherein an abutment member for separating the space at one side of the pistonfrom that at the opposite side, also serves as a valve moved by eccentric motion of the piston to open and close a port in the cylinder wall during one-half of each stroke of the piston.

It is also an object to prevent leakage past the abutment within its slot in the piston, by providing means for exerting a constant force to hold said piston with the face of a side Wall of its slot in rm contact with the side face of the abutment therein and which face is opposed to pressure within the cylinder, and toprevent leakage past the ends of the piston, by providing means for yieldingly expanding the piston in the direction of its length to hold its end walls in face contact 5 with the end walls of its cylinder.

It is also an object to provide certain other new and useful features in the construction and arrangement of parts, all as hereinafter more fully described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein- Figure l is an axial longitudinal section through an internal combustion engine illustrative of an embodiment of thepresent invention;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section substantially upon the line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional detail substantially upon the line 3--3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a similar section upon the line 4-4 of Fig. 2; ,0 Figs. 5 and 6 are transverse sections through compressor and motor respectively, and illustrative of the operation and relative positions of the pistons and valvular abutments therein; and

Fig. '7 is a sectional detail substantially upon the line 1 1 of Fig. 2.

The structure as shown in the accompanying drawings, is an internal combustion engine comprising amotor and a compressor for compressing and supplying combustible charges to the motor, and the structure as shown, comprises an annular motor cylinder indicated as a whole by the numeral I and ah annular compressor cylinder indi` catedas a whole by the numeral 2 with a circular piston 3 in each cylinder anchored therein for eccentric movement, by an abutment member or (Cl. 12S-8) block 4 dividing the crescent shaped, space between the periphery of each piston and cylinder wall, each piston being mounted upon an eccentric 5 formed integral with a shaft 6 extending axially through the two cylinders with an anti-friction bearing 'I interposed between the periphery of each eccentric and piston and the end portions vof said shaft being munted in ball bearings B in the end walls of the cylinders, which walls 9 `form a part of the casing of the structure and the end walls of the two cylinders I and 2. A corresponding single intermediate wall I0 forms the inner end walls of the cylinders and interposed between the peripheral portions of these walls 9 and I0, are annular members II which form the peripheral walls of 'said cylinders,` allv of said walls being formed hollow to provide water cooling spaces, all in communication with a water inlet manifold I2 secured to and extending across the lower side of said cylinders. manifold I3 extends across the upper side of said cylinders in open communication with said hollow walls, and formed integral with this manifold I3, interiorly thereof, is a combustion chamber I4 with the water space of said manifold partly surrounding said chamber which chamber is in cornmunication through a passage I5, with the interior of cylinder I and through a passage I6 with the interior of the cylinder 2. The two wall members and the wall member IIl are secured together witha the annular walls or members I I interposed, by means of bolts I1 passing through the peripheral portions of these walls and through clamping rings I8 secured by said bolts against the outer faces of said walls 9. thus formed by the several separate sections 9, I0 and II which are drawn into firm contact with each other, by said bolts, and in the manufacture of the engine, the end faces of the walls 9 and Iii may be ground perfectly flat before assembly, as may also the end faces of the pistons so that said pistons will contact over their entire end areas with the faces of the cylinder end walls, leakage past the ends of the pistons being thus avoided by maintaining firm contact of these faces of the piston ends with these ground faces of the cylinder walls, by dividing each piston intermediate its end faces, into two parts or halves and interposing coiled springs Il@ between said halves within hollow bosses 2G on each half within the hollow or internal cavity with which each half of the piston is formed with these cavities open toward each other.

The springs I9 thus exert a force to spread the two halves of each piston apart and thus yieldingly A water outlet u The cylinders I and 2 are ends, said pivot bolt thus also serving to assist` hold their end faces in close contact with the faces of the end walls of their cylinders, and to prevent leakage from each cylinder through the peripheral slot or space between the two halvesof each piston, said halves may be formed with opposed grooves in the opposed faces of the peripheral walls of these halves to receive a packing ring 2I, and in a like manner, each piston is formed with opposed grooves in opposed faces of the inner walls ofthe piston halves to receive a packing ring 22, and seated upon these walls and extending across the split between said halves, is a hardened ring 23 upon which the rollers of -the bearings I run. Leakage from the combustion space of the motor and the compression space of the compressor is thus prevented from passing through each piston between the opposed faces of its halves and at the same time leakage between the ends of each piston and the end walls of the cylinders is eifectually prevented by the rm contact maintained by the springs I9, between the ground end faces of the pistons and faces of the end walls of the cylinders.

To anchor each piston within its cylinder for eccentric movement therein, the abutment member or block 4 for each piston which is disposed within a radial slot 23 in said piston, is pivoted for swinging movement upon a pivot bolt or shaft 24 extending through openings in the wall members 9 and I0 and through a longitudinal opening in each block 4 located intermediate the inner and outer sides of each block, said pivot bolt being located well within the circle of the periphery of each piston, Said pivot bolt 24 being rigidly held against rotation and secured to said walls by means of a nut or nuts on its projecting end or in securing Said walls together. Each block 4 is of the same length as the thickness of the piston so 'that the end surfaces of the block will abut.

and slide upon the inner surfaces of the end walls of the cylinder, and the pivot bolt or shaft 24 of each block is so located that the outer end or side of the block, to which is applied a shoe 25, will extend far enough to seat said shoe within a notch or groove 26 formed in the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the cylinder, the surface of this groove 26 being curved concentrically with the axis of the pivot bolt 24 so that as the block swings-upon said pivot, the shoe will ride in contact with the curved surface of the groove 26 and maintain contact therewith to prevent leakage between said shoe and curved surface, said shoe being urged into seating contact therewith by means of springs 21, each within a bore in a rib 28 on the shoe which rib fits closely within a longitudinal groove in the outer side of the block. .4

The port or passage I5 which affords cornmunication between the interior of the `cylinder I and the combustion chamber I4, opens through the curved surface of the groove 26, and in a like manner the passage I6 affording communication between the cylinder of the compressor 2 and said chamber I4 also opens through said curved surface of said groove. Therefore as each block 4 is swung upon its pivot by the eccentric movement of its piston, communication between the interior of each cylinder and the combustion chamber will be opened and closed during eachhalf'stroke of each piston, the port I5 opening through said curved surface at one side of the vertical plane of the pivotal axis of said block and the other port I6 opening through said surface at the opposite side of said plane, both ports being closed when the pistons are at the upper ends of their strokes as shown in Fig. 2.

As shown in Fig. 2 the compressor cylinder is formed with an inlet passage 29 at a distance from the port IS'in the direction of rotation of the piston, and this passage 29 is in open communication with a short intake manifold 30 to which a carburetor or other device (not shown) is attached for supplying av combustible mixture of fuel and air to the compressor cylinder, this intake passage being open at lall times as it is located laterally from the point of contact of the piston with the cylinder wall when the piston is at the upper end of its stroke, and therefore mixture will be drawn in through this passage until the piston reaches the lower end of its stroke where it will be trapped within the mately when the passage I5 leading from this chamber to the motor cylinder is opened to discharge the gases under high compression within the combustion chamber, into the motor cylinder, and when the motor piston has reached the position shown in Fig. 6 the full force of the explosion of gases will be applied to the piston of that cylinder, swinging the piston upon its pivot shaft 24, and thereafter the passage I5, is closed by the valvular abutment of said piston, allowing vthe highly compressed charge to act upon the piston expansively until near the end of its stroke whenthe port 33 will be opened and permit the exhaust gases to pass freely' out, this port remaining open during substantially the remainder of the stroke so that all of the burned gases expanded to nearly atmospheric pressure will bae expelled through the short exhaust manifold 4.

In order to prevent leakage between the abutment blocks 4 and the side wall of each piston slot 23 within which the blocks are located, a longitudinal groove A36 is provided in one wall of each piston slot 23 to receive a bar 31 formed with recesses to receive coiled springs 35 which act between saidbar and bottom of said groove 36 to press said bar against the side of the block 4 and move the piston to bring the side of its slot 23 opposite that at which said springs are located, into rm even contact with that side of the abutment block, s'aid springs for so moving the compressor piston', being located at the forward side of said abutment block in the direction of rotation of the piston as indicated in Fig. 2, to make a tight joint between the block and wall of. the Apiston slot at the compression side of the piston, and said springs 35'.

and open the cylinder port in proper timed rela- 7 5 for operating such valves in lproper timed relation to piston movements. Further the arrangement provides for a sliding 4valve member 4which is continuously held to its seat, thus avoiding leakage due to improper seating caused by wear, and this valve member or shoe 25 carried by the abutment is held yieldingly against its seat so that wear will cause better seating rather than otherwise. In this arrangement of valvular abutment, the abutment itself, oscillates upon its anchoring pivot with the movements of the piston and its pivot also provides an anchor for the.

piston upon which the piston osclllates as it slides upon said abutment. A very strong and easily machined and assembled abutment structure is,

thus secured and leakage past the abutment through the abutment slot in the piston is obviated by the simple expedient of providing springs carried by the piston for moving the piston relative to the abutment and holding the side wall of the piston slot in firm contact with the adjacent side of said abutment.

Further, leakage past the ends of the piston is prevented by grinding said end surfaces to contact throughout their area, the similarly ground surfaces of the cylinder end walls, and such'contact is insured by making the piston expansible in the direction of its length.

Obviously advantages of the particular construction and arrangement shown, may be secured by the employment of modified constructions without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and such modifications are contemplated as falling within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

l. 'I'he combination with a power cylinder and a compression cylinder each having a port opening through the peripheral wall thereof, and a piston eccentricaliy supported in each of said cylinders ,and each piston having a radial slot therein opening through theV periphery thereof;

. of an abutment member in said slot of each piston with a portion of each abutment projecting from the open side of said slot to engage the peripheral wall of its cylinder and open and close' said ports, a combustion chamber with' passages in open communication with said chamber at one end and communicating at their opposite ends through said ports with said cylinders, and means mounted in the end walls of the cylinders and passing through said slots in said pistons for pivotally supporting said abutment members inwardly from said peripheral wall of each piston to swing upon said pivot means with the eccentric movement of said pistons and move the projectingportion of one of said abutment members in contact with said peripheral wall of its cylinder to uncover said port at one side of said abutment and afford free passage through one of said passages for products of combustion from said chamber into said power cylinder upon movement in one direction of said abutment with said power piston in said cylinder and to uncover said port at the other side of said abutment in the compressor cylinder and afford free passage of compressed air from said compressor cylinder through the other passage into said combustion chamber in timed relation to the opening of the passage from said chamber into said power cylinder. Y n 2. The combination as characterized in claim 1 and further characterized by a shoe on said projecting portion of each abutment to yieldngly engage said walls of said cylinders.

3. The combination as characterized in claim 1 and further characterized by each cylinder being formed lwith a groove in its peripheral wall formed concentric in cross section with the pivotal support for the abutment within said radial slot of said piston in said cylinder, each of said abutments being pivotally supported within the slot of its piston upon a pivot bolt supported by said cylinder end walls and positioned within said slot inwardly of the periphery of said piston, a shoe mounted upon the projecting portion of each abutment member, and yieldable means to press each of said shoes into contact with the curved surfaces of 'said grooves in said cylinder walls.

4. In an engine assembly comprising a motor cylinder and a compressor cylinder, said cylinders being formed by hollow circular end walls, an intermediate hollow'circular wall and annular members between said end and intermediate walls and forming the peripheral walls of said cylinders, said walls and members being secured together by through bolts adjacent the peripheries of said walls; a water manifold secured to said cylinders in communication with said hollow walls and formed with an interior combustion chamber having `passages affording communication between said chamber and said cylinders; a shaft mounted axially of said cylinders; an eccentric in each cylinder upon said shaft with said eccentrics extending laterally in the same direction from said shaft; a piston of circular form mounted upon each eccentric in each cylinder and each piston formed with a radial slot opening through its periphery; an abutment member in said slot of each piston with its outer end in contact with the peripheral wall of each of said cylinders, a pivot bolt mounted in the end walls of said cylinders and extending through said abutment member within said slots to pivotally support said abutment members, said cylinder walls being formed with ports through which said passages open opposite said outer ends of said abutments to be opened and closed, one in timed relation to the other, by swinging movements of said abutments upon their pivotal supports with the movements of said pistons; and an intake manifold in open communication with said compressor cylinder at the intake side thereof at one side of said chamber and an exhaust manifold in open communication with said motor cylinder at the exhaust side thereof and at the opposite side ofv said chamber.

' JOHN 0.- HEINZE.

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