Internal combustion engine with a single crankshaft and having opposed cylinders with opposed pistons
First Claim
1. An internal combustion engine comprising a single crankshaft and two opposed cylinders, each cylinder having two opposed pistons;
- wherein the single crankshaft has asymmetrically arranged journals, pushrods and pullrods for driving the journals from the pistons, each cylinder has air inlet ports and exhaust ports, the pistons in each cylinder operate to open its exhaust ports before its air intake ports and close them before its air intake ports close, and wherein the geometrical configurations and the masses of those parts are selected so as to minimize the dynamic imbalance of the engine during its operation.
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Abstract
A two-stroke internal combustion engine is disclosed having opposed cylinders, each cylinder having a pair of opposed pistons, with all the pistons connected to a common central crankshaft. The inboard pistons of each cylinder are connected to the crankshaft with pushrods and the outboard pistons are connected to the crankshaft with pullrods. This configuration results in a compact engine with a very low profile, in which the free mass forces can be essentially totally balanced. The engine configuration also allows for asymmetrical timing of the intake and exhaust ports through independent angular positioning of the eccentrics on the crankshaft, making the engine suitable for supercharging.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. An internal combustion engine comprising a single crankshaft and two opposed cylinders, each cylinder having two opposed pistons;
- wherein the single crankshaft has asymmetrically arranged journals, pushrods and pullrods for driving the journals from the pistons, each cylinder has air inlet ports and exhaust ports, the pistons in each cylinder operate to open its exhaust ports before its air intake ports and close them before its air intake ports close, and wherein the geometrical configurations and the masses of those parts are selected so as to minimize the dynamic imbalance of the engine during its operation.
- 2. An internal combustion engine comprising a single crankshaft having a plurality of journals, two opposed cylinders having their inner ends adjacent the crankshaft, each cylinder having inner and outer pistons reciprocably disposed therein and forming a combustion chamber therebetween, two pushrods each of which drivingly couples a respective inner piston to a correponding journal on the crankshaft, two pullrods each of which drivingly couples a respective outer piston to another corresponding journal on the crankshaft, and wherein the geometrical configurations and masses of those parts are selected so as to minimize the dynamic imbalance of the engine during its operation.
- 14. An internal combustion engine comprising a single crankshaft having at least four separate journals, two opposed cylinders having their inner ends adjacent the crankshaft, each cylinder also having inner and outer pistons reciprocably disposed therein to form a combustion chamber therebetween, each cylinder having air intake ports and exhaust ports formed near its respective ends and fuel injection means communicating with its combustion chamber, push rods drivingly coupling the respective inner pistons to respective journals on the crankshaft, pull rods drivingly coupling the respective outer pistons to other respective journals on the crankshaft, and wherein the masses and geometrical configurations of those parts are selected so as to minimize the dynamic imbalance of the engine during its operation.
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22. An opposed-piston, opposed-cylinder two-stroke internal combustion engine comprising:
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1) A pair of opposed cylinders, each cylinder having two pistons reciprocably mounted therein, the two pistons in each cylinder forming a combustion chamber between them;
2) A single crankshaft located centrally between the two cylinders, the crankshaft having a plurality of journals;
3) Each cylinder further having a) an inner end and an outer end, the inner end of each cylinder being adjacent to the single crankshaft;
b) a cylinder wall with intake ports and exhaust ports, with one of the pistons in each cylinder operable to cover and uncover the intake ports in the cylinder wall, and the other piston in each cylinder operable to cover and uncover the exhaust ports in the cylinder wall, the intake ports in one cylinder being located towards the inner end of the cylinder and the exhaust ports located towards the outer end of the cylinder, the intake ports in the other cylinder being located towards the outer end of the cylinder and the exhaust ports located towards the inner end of the cylinder;
c) the cylinder walls further having one or more slots towards the outer end;
4) A pair of pushrods assemblies, one pushrod assembly coupling a pushing force from the innermost piston in each cylinder to a journal on the crankshaft;
5) A pair of lightweight pullrod assemblies, one pullrod assembly coupling a pulling force from the outermost piston in each cylinder to a different journal on the crankshaft, the pullrod assemblies communicating with the pistons through the slots in the cylinder walls; and
6) The crankshaft journals being angularly positioned such that the dynamic forces within the engine substantially balance. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification