Pumps – Three or more cylinders arranged in parallel – radial – or... – Radial cylinders
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-11
2004-02-17
Tyler, Cheryl J. (Department: 3746)
Pumps
Three or more cylinders arranged in parallel, radial, or...
Radial cylinders
C417S462000, C417S466000, C091S495000, C091S494000, C277S367000, C277S410000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06692237
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cylinder apparatus which can be used as, for example, a pump, a compressor or a fluid motor, and more particularly to a rotary cylinder apparatus in which a piston moves into or from a cylinder chamber by the rotary motion.
TECHNICAL TERMS
A term “rotary cylinder apparatus” used in this specification includes a device which performs a mechanical task by using fluid energy as well as a device which compresses and thrusts a fluid by using rotational energy. That is, the term “rotary cylinder apparatus” means devices that generically designate a rotary pump, a rotary compressor, a fluid motor and others.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
As a pump which is of a type for rotating a rotor and thrusting a fluid by a displacement effect, there is known a rotary pump using a gear type rotor. In case of this pump, however, the tooth profile of the rotor is hard to be machined, which results in increase of the cost. Thus, in order to eliminate this problem, the present applicant has developed a rotary cylinder apparatus having a structure in which an intake and discharge mechanism does not require a gear component (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 118501/1981, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 87184/1982, and Japanese Utility Model Application No. 92486/1983).
The rotary cylinder apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 118501/1981 has, as shown in
FIGS. 67 and 68
, a circular cylinder member
102
fixed to the inside of a casing
101
by press fitting and the like, and a support member
104
which rotates in a circular hollow portion
103
formed at a central part of this cylinder member
102
. To the cylinder portion
102
are formed six cylinder chambers
105
a
,
105
b
,
105
c
,
105
d
,
105
e
and
105
f
which are radially arranged and respectively communicate with the central hollow portion
103
. The respective cylinders
105
a
to
105
f
are provided so as to sequentially communicate with a suction opening
106
which communicates with the outside of the casing
101
to take a fluid into the cylinder apparatus and a discharge opening
107
which applies a pressure to the taken fluid to discharge it, as the support member
104
rotates.
The support member
104
is a discoid member fixed to one end of a shaft
108
rotatably supported by a hole
101
a
formed to the casing
101
, and a lunate valve sheet
109
is attached on a surface opposite to the shaft
108
. This valve sheet
109
is arranged so as to be capable of rotating in the appressed manner in an area corresponding to substantially the semicircle of an inner wall portion
103
a
of the cylinder member
102
and provided so as to cause the hollow portion
103
to selectively communicate with an arbitrary cylinder chamber. It is to be noted that a hole
104
a
for communicating with the discharge opening
107
is provided to the support member
104
.
A shaft
110
is fixed at an eccentric position of the support member
104
, and a rotary piston member
111
is rotatably supported by this shaft
110
. Both ends of the shaft
110
are fixed to the discoid support member
104
and an auxiliary plate member
113
which are arranged so as to be opposed to each other with the valve sheet
109
therebetween. A hole
113
a
for communicating with the suction opening
106
is provided to the auxiliary plate member
113
. This auxiliary plate member
113
integrally rotates with the support member
104
. The rotary piston member
111
is constituted by a rotation center portion
112
a
and pistons
111
a
,
111
b
and
111
c
radially extending in three directions from the rotation center portion
112
a
. The rotary piston member
111
moves around a shaft center o
1
of the cylinder member
102
as the support member
104
rotates.
As shown in
FIGS. 68A
to
68
D, when the respective pistons
111
a
,
111
b
and
111
c
rotate (revolution) around shaft center o
1
in a direction indicated by an arrow B
1
while rotating (autorotation) around the shaft
110
in a direction indicated by an arrow A
1
as the support member
104
rotates, the three pistons
111
a
to
111
c
sequentially move into or from the respective fixed cylinder chambers
105
a
to
105
f
so that the outside air is sequentially taken from the suction opening
106
into the respective cylinder chambers
105
a
to
105
f
and discharged from the discharge opening
107
to the outside. This pump operation is repeated. According to this apparatus, since the advanced tooth profile finishing technique is not required, manufacture is facilitated.
However, since the respective pistons
111
a
to
111
c
move into or from the cylinder chambers
105
a
to
105
f
while rolling, they must have a structure that their end portions are sharpened and the dimension of each of the pistons in the widthwise direction has a margin when they enter the cylinder chambers
106
a
to
105
f
in order to smooth and facilitate the operation of each piston. Accordingly, a gap is thereby formed between the pistons
111
a
to
111
c
and the cylinder chambers
105
a
to
105
f
. As a result, a fluid tends to flow from the gap portion, and the pump efficiency is thereby disadvantageously lowered.
Further, the rotary cylinder apparatus disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 87184/1982 and Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 92486/1983 is the same as the counterpart disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 118501/1981 mentioned above in the basic structure, namely, that the radially arranged pistons relatively rotationally move along the radially arranged cylinder chambers while rotating to obtain the pump effect. However, this rotary cylinder apparatus is different from the former apparatus in that the cylinder member
102
rotates by rotation of the rotary piston member
111
, the valve sheet
109
is fixed to the case and does not rotate, and a rotation supporting point of the rotary piston member
111
does not swivel.
In case of the type that the cylinder chamber rotates together with the rotary piston member, therefore, the piston is formed into a substantially circular disc shape whose outer diameter is nearly equal to a width of the cylinder chamber, as different from the above-described type that the cylinder chamber is fixed. That is because the smooth operation is enabled even if there is substantially no gap between the pistons and the cylinder chambers when the pistons move into or from the cylinder chambers since the cylinder member also rotates in the same direction as the rotary piston member. However, in case of this type, since the contact surface between the piston and the cylinder chamber is constituted by an outer peripheral surface of the circular disc-like piston and the inner wall of the linear cylinder chamber, an area of this contact surface is so small that this part can not withstand a pressure of a fluid. Consequently, the fluid leaks, and the pump effect lowers when the pressure is increased.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rotary cylinder apparatus which can prevent a fluid from leaking from the contact portion between the piston and the cylinder member and thereby convert the fluid energy into the rotary motion or the rotary motion into the fluid energy with small losses.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve this aim, according to the present invention, there is provided a rotary cylinder apparatus comprising: a rotary cylinder member which has a cylinder chamber formed thereto so as to pass through a rotary shaft center and rotates around the rotary shaft center; a piston which demonstrates the reciprocating linear motion in surface contact with the inside of the cylinder chamber; a piston holding member which supports the piston and rotates around a rotation center eccentric from the rotary shaft center of the rotary cylinder member; and a casing which rotatably supports the rotary cylinder member and the piston holding member and has at least one fluid inlet and at least one
Komatsu Fumito
Muramatsu Kenji
Nakamura Yuki
Takeuchi Tomohiro
Kabushiki Kaisha Sankyo Seiki Seisakusho
Notaro & Michalos P.C.
Sayoc Emmanual
Tyler Cheryl J.
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