ROTARY INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE WITH LOW STARTING DRAG

• US 3,712,766 A
• Filed: 11/08/1971
• Issued: 01/23/1973
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: John Deere Technologies International Incorporated (Deere & Company)
• Original Assignee: Charles Jones
• Inventors: Jones, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Husar, C. J.
• Application Number:
  US05/196,634
• Time in Patent Office: 442 Days
• Field of Search: 418/81,84,88 123/8.09 184/27,31,36
• US Class Current: 418/88
• CPC Class Codes: F01M 5/00 Heating, cooling, or controlling temperature of lubricant arrangement of lubricant coolers in engine cooling system F01P11/08; Lubrication means facilitating engine starting
• CPC Class Codes: F02N 19/001 Arrangements thereof

Abstract

A rotary internal combustion engine having provision to eliminate the oil pump drag during low temperature starting by means of a slip-clutch cutting out the oil pump during conditions of high oil viscosity, and having bearings capable of running with only residual lubrication and without additional lubricant supply until the engine warms up.

Claims

1. A rotary engine having a pair of parallel side walls spaced apart by a peripheral wall defining an engine cavity, a shaft transpiercing the side walls and turning in bearings borne by the side walls and having an eccentric portion within the engine cavity, the eccentric portion being surrounded by a bearing and having a hollow rotor rotatably mounted thereon, one of the side walls having a fixed spur gear mounted thereon within the engine cavity, the rotor having an internal gear in mesh with the spur gear, an oil sump for cooling and lubrication oil disposed externally to the engine cavity, an oil pump disposed externally to the engine cavity and driven by the shaft and having an intake in communication with the oil sump, one of the side walls having passage means therethrough with one end of the passage communicating with the pump discharge and the other end communicating with the engine cavity for supplying lubricating and cooling oil thereto, slip clutch means disposed between the shaft and the pump and providing frictional engagement therebetween, the degree of frictional engagement being such that the shaft drives the pump to pump oil at normal engine operating temperature and oil viscosity and such that the clutch means slips at low engine temperature and high oil viscosity and the pump does not operate.

2. The combination recited in claim 1, wherein on the side adjacent to the pump discharge orifice the rotor has a circular aperture communicating with the hollow interior, and the pump discharge orifice is positioned at such radial distance from the shaft axis that the orifice will be within the periphery of the rotor aperture at all rotor positions so that the interior of the rotor receives a constant supply of cooling oil.

3. The combination recited in claim 2, wherein the spur gear and the internal gear are disposed at the axially opposite side of the engine cavity from the pump orifice, and that portion of the eccentric having the greatest radial extent from the shaft axis has passage means therethrough which comes in register with the pump orifice at each revolution of the eccentric, so that the oil jet emerging from the pump orifice squirts through the eccentric passage to lubricate the spur gear and the internal gear.

4. The combination recited in claim 3, wherein that portion of the eccentric having the greatest radial extent from the shaft axis has an arcuate internal channel open radially inwardly and communicating with the rotor interior, and passage means communicating between the internal channel and the bearing surrounding the eccentric so that oil collecting in the internal channel of the eccentric is impelled outwardly by centrifugal force through the passage to the eccentric bearing.

5. The combination recited in claim 4, wherein the shaft bearings borne by the side walls are in communication with the rotor interior and receive lubricating oil therefrom.