BALANCED-FREE PISTON ENGINE

• US 3,610,217 A
• Filed: 10/21/1969
• Issued: 10/05/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1969
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Tectonics Companies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Anton Braun
• Inventors: Braun, Anton
• Primary Examiner(s): Burns, Wendell E.
• Application Number:
  US04/868,008
• Time in Patent Office: 714 Days
• Field of Search: 123/46,46B,46SA,46A,46H,46E,64SC,192,193,321 417/380 7/364 290/1
• US Class Current: 123/46.00A
• CPC Class Codes: F01B 9/047 with rack and pinion
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 71/00 Free-piston engines; Engines without rotary main shaft

Abstract

Unsymmetrical, synchronized, balanced, free piston engines are disclosed in which a pair of alternately acting power pistons are interconnected to form a double-acting power piston, in which the power piston is connected to the movable member of an energy absorbing device to be driven by the engine in order to provide the reciprocatory power input to that energy absorbing device, the double-acting power piston, the movable member, and the connection between them defining a power assembly, and in which the movement of the power assembly in the engine is balanced by the oppositely directed translational movement, with respect to the engine housing, of a counterbalancing movable weight associated with a synchronizer-balancer. Engines incorporating energy absorbing devices in the form of a pump, an electrical generator, and a double-acting reciprocal compressor are specifically shown. Also specifically shown are two single-acting power sections which may be used together in place of the one double-acting power section.

Claims

1. An unsymmetrical, synchronized, balanced, free piston engine adapted to drive a reciprocally movable member of an energy absorbing device comprising, in combination:

an engine housing;

means for defining a first power cylinder in the engine housing;

means for defining a second power cylinder in the engine housing, with the second power cylinder being substantially coaxial to the first power cylinder;

main piston means including a first power piston mounted in the first power cYlinder for reciprocal movement therein along an axis substantially parallel to the central longitudinal axis of the first power cylinder, the first power piston defining a first combustion chamber with the first power cylinder, and including a second power piston mounted in the second power cylinder for reciprocal movement therein along an axis substantially parallel to the central longitudinal axis of the second power cylinder, the second power piston defining a second combustion chamber with the second power cylinder, the second combustion chamber being arranged to be alternately acting with the first combustion chamber;

connection means, including shaft means, for connecting the main piston means, including the first power piston and the second power piston, to the movable member of an energy absorbing device, the main piston means, the connecting means, and the movable member of the energy absorbing device defining a power assembly wherein all components of the power assembly always move together as a unit;

a synchronizerbalancer assembly having first means connected to move with the power assembly and having a counterbalancing means arranged for translational movement as a unit with respect to the engine housing in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the power assembly in response to movement of the first means, the counterbalancing means having a preselected weight such that the absolute product of the weight associated to move with the counterbalancing means of the synchronizer-balancer assembly multiplied by the stroke of the counterbalancing means of the synchronizer-balancer assembly is substantially equal to the absolute product of the sum of the weight associated to move with the power assembly multiplied by the corresponding stroke length of the power assembly.

2. The improved free piston engine of claim 1, wherein the central longitudinal axes of the shaft means, the first power cylinder, the second power cylinder, and the counterbalancing means of the synchronizer-balancer assembly are coaxial and their paths of movement are parallel to their central longitudinal axes.

3. The improved free piston engine of claim 2, wherein the counterbalancing means of the synchronizer-balancer assembly comprises counterbalancing movable weight, with the weight arranged for translational movement with respect to the engine housing.

4. The improved free piston engine of claim 3, wherein the energy absorbing device is a pump.

5. The improved free piston engine of claim 4, wherein the pump includes at least one pumping chamber, wherein the movable member includes at least one pumping plunger associated with the pumping chamber and a cam which causes the pumping plunger to move reciprocally within the pumping chamber in response to movement of the cam.

6. The improved free piston engine of claim 3, wherein the energy absorbing device is an electrical generator.

7. The improved free piston engine of claim 6, wherein the movable member of the electrical generator is an electrical armature.

8. The improved free piston engine of claim 3, wherein the energy absorbing device is a double-acting reciprocal compressor having a compressor housing with a compressor cylinder formed therein, and wherein the movable member is a compressor piston which is mounted in the compressor cylinder for reciprocal movement therein in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the compressor cylinder, the compressor piston defining at least first and second compressor chambers with the compressor housing and the compressor cylinder.

9. The improved free piston of claim 3, wherein the means for defining the second power cylinder in the housing defines the second power cylinder to be adjacent to, coaxial with, and interconnected with the first power cylinder to form a double-acting power cylinder, wherein the connection means interconnects the first power piston and the second power piston to form a double-acting power piston, and wherein the combinatioN of the double-acting power cylinder and the double-acting power piston comprises a double-acting power section.

10. The improved free piston engine of claim 3, wherein the first power piston and the first power cylinder comprise a first single-acting power section, wherein the first single-acting power section is positioned adjacent an end of the engine, and wherein the second power piston and the second power cylinder comprise a second single-acting power section.

11. The improved free piston engine of claim 10, wherein the first combustion chamber is defined in the first power cylinder between the outer face of the first power piston and the closed outer end of the first power cylinder, and wherein the second combustion chamber is defined in the second power cylinder between the outer face of the second power piston and the closed outer end of the second power cylinder.

12. The improved free piston engine of claim 10, wherein the shaft means connecting with the main piston means penetrates a portion of the engine housing forming one end of the second power cylinder to connect with the reciprocally movable member of an energy absorbing device, and wherein a combustion chamber shaft seal is positioned in the housing surrounding the shaft to minimize the leakage of gas and lubricant between the shaft and the housing.

13. The improved free piston engine of claim 10, wherein the second single-acting power section is positioned on the extreme end of the engine opposite from the first single-acting power section.

14. The improved free piston engine of claim 3, in which the first and second power cylinders and synchronizer-balancer assembly are located immediately adjacent each other along a common longitudinal axis with the first and second power pistons and the first means of the synchronizer-balancer assembly directly connected to each other by said shaft means, the connection means being adapted for connecting to the movable member of an energy absorbing device located along said axis at one end of the engine beyond said power pistons and synchronizer-balancer assembly.