Engine-operated generator

Abstract: A compact engine-operated generator (1) having a high soundproof effect in which a generator (35) can be cooled efficiently as well as an engine (30) and a muffler (32). The engine-operated generator (1) has an engine (30) and a generator (35) driven by the engine (30) arranged in a row with a common rotary axis and accommodated in a soundproof case (2). The generator (35), the engine (30) and a muffler (32) are arranged in order within the soundproof case (2) and covered by a duct (7, 8, 16) to be isolated from other instruments in the soundproof case (2), the duct (7, 8, 16) has an end on the side of the generator (35) opening to an interior of the soundproof case (2), and a cooling fan (40) is driven by the engine (30) so that air in the soundproof case (2) is inhaled through an opening (4a, 4b) of the duct (7, 8, 16) on the side of the generator (35) into the duct (7, 8, 16), cools the generator (35), the engine (30) and the muffler (32) in order and then is discharged through an opening (8a) of the duct (7, 8, 16) on the side of the muffler (32) to the exterior.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an engine-operated generator covered by a soundproof case in its entirety. The engine-operated generator in which an engine and a generator driven by the engine are integrated is used at a construction work site generally. And in consideration of influences to the surroundings when it is operated in a city area especially at night, an engine-operated generator covered by a soundproof case in its entirety has been used widely in order to restrain operation noise as low as possible. In this kind of engine-operated generator, openings for suctioning or discharging air are made few in number and small in size to achieve necessary silence during operation. But on the one hand, it is necessary to devote great care to cooling interior of the soundproof case because the area of the opening is small. Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 64-3777 discloses an engine-operated generator in which an engine and a muffler are covered by a duct to be isolated from other instruments and cooling air is forcibly passed through the duct and discharged at the side of the muffler out of the soundproof case so that high temperature discharge of the cooling air is prevented from recirculating into the soundproof case. However, as for an generator placed outside of the duct in the soundproof case, it is necessary to provide another cooling air passage than the above duct or an exclusive cooling fan for the generator, and therefore the engine-operated generator is caused to be large-sized. In the engine-operated generator of the Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 64-3777, a fan for cooling the generator is provided separately from a cooling fan for passing air forcibly through the duct covering the engine and the muffler, and air discharged from the fan for cooling the generator is joined in the duct after cooling the generator. Therefore, there is a problem that the air from the generator cooling fan must be at a certain high discharge pressure to be able to enter the duct, and it is not necessarily an efficient cooling system US-A-4 702 201 discloses an engine operated generator having an engine and a dynamo cooled by separate cooling fans and air flows, which air flows then pass into a muffler duct for cooling the muffler. EP-A1-0 648 924 discloses an engine operated generator in which a generator, engine, fan and muffler are disposed in this order in a soundproof bonnet. Within the soundproof bonnet, an engine and generator chamber, also containing other components such as a battery and a control units, is sectioned off by a wall, the fan being located in a hole in the wall, with a guide or encircling wall around the fan. The muffler and a radiator for the water cooled engine are arranged in the other part of the interior of the soundproof bonnet sectioned off by the wall. US-A-5 4299 469 discloses an engine operated generator in which, within an enclosure, a fan, generator and engine are arranged in that order. A brush partition divides the interior of the enclosure into a section containing the fan and a section containing the engine and generator. US-A-5 433 175 discloses an engine operated generator for a recreation vehicle (RV) having a fan, generator and liquid cooled engine arranged in that order in a housing. US-A-5 121 715 discloses an engine operated generator having the precharacterising features of claim 1. The present invention seeks to provide a compact engine-operated generator having a high soundproof effect in which a generator can be cooled efficiently as well as an engine and a muffler. According to the present invention there is provided an engine-operated generator according to claim 1. Since the air inhaled into the duct through the opening on the side of the generator cools the generator of relatively low temperature firstly and then cools in order the engine and the muffler of higher temperature to be discharged through the opening on the side of the muffler to the exterior, the generator is cooled efficiently as well as the engine and the muffler. A high soundproof effect can be achieved because the engine is covered by the duct and the soundproof case doubly. The generator, the engine and the muffler need only to be arranged in order within the duct and they may be arranged in an L-shape, for example, utilizing space within the soundproof case efficiently to make the apparatus compact. The generator may be an outer-rotor type generator having an outer-rotor which serves as an flywheel of the engine and the cooling fan may be provided in the opening of the duct on the side of the generator integrally with the outer-rotor. Since the outer-rotor of the generator serves as an flywheel of the engine, length of the engine-operated generator in the axial direction can be made short. Since the cooling fan is attached to the outer-rotor integrally, a cooling fan of large capacity can be provided easily and a high supporting strength for the fan can be obtained. The engine may have a cylinder inclined sideways obliquely and the muffler may be disposed in a space above the cylinder. Since a large muffler can be disposed in the space which is formed above the engine by inclining the cylinder, the size in the vertical direction as well as the size in the axial direction can be restrained small to attempt miniaturization of the apparatus. Further, a reasonable cooling air stream can be generated for efficient cooling, because the hotter portion is positioned at the higher position. The muffler may be elongated in a direction perpendicular to a rotary shaft of the engine. The muffler of large capacity can be disposed in the space above the inclined cylinder with the vertical size of the apparatus restrained small. The generator may be an outer-rotor type multipolar generator having a magnet rotor, and a control circuit for converting an output of the generator into an alternating current of a predetermined frequency may be provided. It is possible to make the axial size of the generator small and lower the rotational speed of the generator when the load is not large to reduce operation noise greatly. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is an outside view of an engine-operated generator according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a soundproof case and inner frame members; Fig. 3 is a plan view showing the engine-operated generator in which a center cover and a fuel tank are omitted; Fig. 4 is a side view of the engine-operated generator partly omitted; Fig. 5 is a front view thereof; Fig. 6 is a rear view thereof; and Fig. 7 is a side view showing partly by section the generator and vicinity thereof. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figs. 1 to 7. The engine-operated generator 1 according to the preferred embodiment is covered with a soundproof case 2 in its entirety to form a cube as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the soundproof case 2 and other inner frame members. An under frame member 3 is formed in a shape of a flat saucer and has a front side wall 3a, a right side wall 3b and a rear side wall 3c. The front and right side walls 3a, 3b are provided with suction holes 4a, 4b. The rear side wall 3c is detachable. On the inner side of the under frame member 3 are laid a pair of front and rear supporting members 3p, 3q extending in the right-left direction in parallel with each other. On the under frame member 3 are erected substantially rectangular front and rear frame members 5, 6 facing to each other at a predetermined interval. Upper edge portions of the front frame member 5 are bent rearward to form flanges 5a. A rectangular panel portion of the front frame member 5 has a rectangular open hole 5b elongated in the right-left direction at an upper part and a communication open hole 5c formed in a shape of a partly swelled circle at a lower part. On the one hand, the rear frame member 6 is split into upper and lower parts and a large rectangular central through hole 7a is formed when the upper and lower parts are joined. From the through hole 7a is projected forward a duct 7 formed integrally with the rear frame member 6. Upper edge portions of the rear frame member 6 are bent forward to form flanges 6a. The front portion of the duct 7 is shaped in a rectangular pipe opening to the front. A duct 8 made of glass wool is disposed behind the rear frame member 6. The duct 8 swells out rearward communicating with the duct 7 through the through hole 7a. The duct 8 is shaped in a substantially rectangular box opening toward the front and bottom and having a discharge hole 8a at an upper side wall. Between the front frame member 5 and the rear frame member 6 elected on the under frame member 3, a pair of right and left reinforcing rails 9, 9 are provided directed in front-rear direction and penetrating upper corners of the frame members 5, 6. A center cover 11 shaped as a halved square pipe is placed along outer peripheral edges of the front and rear frame members 5, 6 for covering the space between the frame members 5, 6 to partition the space from the exterior. The center cover 11 is formed in a shape of a half of a square pipe by bending a plate and has a left side wall 11a, an upper wall 11b and a right upper side wall 11c. The right under side of the center cover 11 is covered by an opening and closing separate lid member 12 to partition a center compartment 22 (Fig. 3) therein. In the upper wall of the center cover 11 is formed a circular hole 11d through which a refueling mouth 55b of a fuel tank 55 projects (Fig. 4). A front of the front frame member 5 is covered by a front cover 13 shaped in a generally rectangular box to partition a front compartment 21. A rear of the rear frame member 6 is covered by a rear cover 14 shaped in a generally rectangular box to partition a rear compartment 23. Along the inner surface of the rear cover 14 extends the aforementioned glass wool duct 8 as a liner. Therefore, the rear compartment 23 is formed inside of the duct 8. A central portion of a front wall of the front cover 13 is recessed and there is formed a rectangular opening 13a for a control panel 62. In an upper wall of the rear cover 14 is formed a rectangular opening 14a corresponding to the discharge hole 8a provided on the aforementioned duct 8. As mentioned above, the soundproof case 2 constituting an outer wall of the engine-operated generator 1 has six faces formed by the under frame member 3, the center cover 11, the lid member 12, the front cover 13 and the rear cover 14. And inner space of the soundproof case 2 is partitioned into the front compartment 21, the center compartment 22 and the rear compartment 23 by the front frame member 5 and the rear frame member 6. In addition, within the center compartment is provided a fan cover 16, which serves as a duct too, continuously to the rectangular-pipe-like section of the duct 7 swelling out into the center compartment 22 from the rear frame member 6. The fan cover 16 is formed about cylindrical to cover a generator 35 and a centrifugal fan 40 and has a suction opening 16a which is a circular opening at the front end. On a circular end surface at the suction opening 16a are provided a plurality of projections 16b having predetermined lengths. The fan cover 16 has a flange 16c projecting radially outward at the opening rear end and a rectangular frame member 17 is attached to the flange 16c from the rear. The rectangular frame member 17 is surrounded by a seal rubber 18 along the rectangular outer peripheral edge and fitted in the rectangular-pipe-like section of the duct 7 being sealed by the seal rubber 18. Namely, the fan cover 16 is connected with the duct 7 of the rear frame member 6 through the rectangular frame member 17 and the duct 7 is connected with the duct 8 which swells out rearward from the rear frame member 6 to form the rear compartment 23. Therefore, within the soundproof case 2, a duct space formed by the fan cover 16, the duct 7 and the duct 8 occupies the rear compartment 23 and a part of the center compartment 22. The duct space has an upper stream side suction opening 16a opening into the center compartment 22 and a lower stream side discharge opening 8a provided in the upper side wall of the duct 8. The discharge opening 8a faces the rectangular opening 14a of the rear cover 14 and opens to the exterior of the soundproof case 2. On the above-mentioned frame construction and duct construction within the soundproof case 2 are disposed various instruments. The engine 30 is accommodated in the ducts 7, 8 at the rear of the soundproof case 2 as shown in Fig. 4, and supported by a pair of right and left vibrationproof mount member 31 fixed to the supporting member 3q on the under frame member 3 (Figs. 4 and 6). As shown in Fig. 6, the engine 30 has a crankcase 30a positioned biased to the left side, a cylinder 30b projecting inclined to the right direction somewhat upwardly and a crankshaft 30c directed in front-rear direction horizontally and projecting forward. Since the cylinder 30b of the engine 30 is inclined as mentioned above, a large upper space can be ensured in the ducts 7, 8, and in this space, a large cylindrical muffler 32 is disposed directed in right-left direction. The muffler 32 is supported by the engine by means of a bracket 33 and an exhaust pipe 34 extending upward from the cylinder 30b is connected with the muffler 32. A tail pipe 32a extends around the muffler 32 from a right side wall to a rear face thereof, and exhaust opening of the tail pipe is positioned in the vicinity of the discharge opening 8a. The generator 35 is connected to the crankshaft 30c projecting forward from the crankcase 30a. The generator 35 is an outer-rotor type multipolar generator having an outer-rotor 36 shaped in a bottomed cylinder fixed to the crankshaft 30c integrally. A plurality of magnets 36a are stuck circumferentially on an inner surface of a peripheral wall of the rotor 36 so as to rotate together with the crankshaft 30c. The outer-rotor 36 serves as a flywheel of the engine, too. The outer-rotor 36 has a bottom wall at the front and opens rearward. As for the inner stator 37 of the generator 35, a stator core having a plurality of radial yokes and generating coils wound on the yokes is fixed to the crankcase 30a. The bottom wall of the outer-rotor 36 is formed with a plurality of ventilating holes 36b and the centrifugal fan 40 is fixed to the bottom wall of the outer-rotor 36 from the front. The centrifugal fan 40 is a two faces fan having fan blades 41, 42 on both front and rear faces of a disk-like base plate 40a. The fan cover 16 covers the generator 35 and the centrifugal fan 40 with the suction opening 16a at the front end opposed to the centrifugal fan 40. The rear end of the fan cover 16 is fixed to the crankcase 30a of the engine 30 together with the rectangular frame member 17. In front of the fan cover 16, a recoil starter 45 is provided opposite to the suction opening 16a. A predetermined space is left between the recoil starter 45 and the fan cover 16 by the projection 16b on the end surface surrounding the suction opening 16a of the fan cover 16. A boss section 46b of a starter case 46 of the recoil starter 45 is fixed to the fan cover 16 to be supported integrally. Referring to Fig. 3, the recoil starter 45 has a ratchet wheel 47 provided on a rotary shaft which is coaxial with the crankshaft 30c so as to be projected rearward. A ratchet 48 opposing to the ratchet wheel 47 is attached to a central part of the centrifugal fan 40 The ratchet wheel 47 is driven through a gear train 47a by a starter lever and also driven by a starter motor 49 provided at a left end of the starter case 46. When the ratchet wheel 47 usually separated from the ratchet 48 is driven by the starter motor 49 for example, the ratchet wheel 47 projects rearward to engage with the ratchet 48 and the crankshaft 30c is rotated forcibly through the ratchet 48 and the outer-rotor 36 to start the engine 30. The starter case 46 of the recoil starter 45 has a conical wall in which a plurality of slits 46a are formed arranged circumferentially. Cooling air is introduced into the suction opening 16a of the fan cover 16 through the space between the end face of the fan cover 16 and the starter case 46 and further through the slits 46a. The recoil starter 45 is positioned in the center compartment 22 and supported by a pair of right and left vibrationproof mount members 50 fixed to the supporting member 3p on the under frame member 3 (Figs. 4, 5). The engine 30 and the recoil starter 45 are connected integrally by the fan cover 16 to constitute a vibratory unit. The engine 30 in the rear is supported by the vibrationproof mount member 31 and the recoil starter 45 in the front is supported by the vibrationproof mount member 50, so that the vibratory unit can be supported efficiently at positions near front and rear both end portions thereof. Since the generator 35 and the recoil starter 45 are disposed in front of the crankcase 30a positioned left extending over the rear compartment 23 and the center compartment 22, there is formed a space on the right side of the fan cover 16 and the recoil starter 45 in the center compartment 22, and in this space are arranged a carburetor 52 and an air-cleaner 53 with the air-cleaner 53 positioned in front. While the muffler 32 is disposed above the engine 30, the fuel tank 55 is disposed in a space above the fan cover 16, the recoil starter 45, the carburetor 52 and the air-cleaner 53 in the center compartment 22. The fuel tank 55 is supported on the right and left reinforcing rails 9 laid between the front frame member 5 and the rear frame member 6 by means of a flange 55a fixed to the rails 9 by bolts 57 with vibrationproof rubbers 56 inserted. A part of the fuel tank 55 is extruded into the front compartment 21 through the upper open hole 5b of the front frame member 5. The refueling mouth 55b of the fuel tank 55 is projected upward through the circular hole 11d of the center cover 11 and a fuel cap 58 is screwed on an upper end of the refueling mouth 55b. The fuel tank 55 is disposed in a space outside of the fan cover 16 and the duct 7 within the center compartment together with suction system instruments such as the carburetor 52 and the air-cleaner 53, and fuel system parts of the engine 30 are concentrated in the lump. Thus, the space is utilized efficiently and the apparatus is made compact. In the flat rectangular space of the front compartment 21 covered by the front cover 13 in front of the front frame member 5, an inverter device 60 and a battery 61 is disposed right and left on the under frame member 3 and above them is provided a control panel 62 facing the front rectangular opening 13a of the front cover 13. Namely, electric instruments are concentrated in the front compartment 21. The inverter device 60 converts output of the multipolar generator 35 into alternating current of a predetermined frequency. The inverter device 60 is disposed on the right side of the front compartment 21 near the suction holes 4a, 4b to be cooled by sucked outer air at the outset. As described above, the engine-operated generator 1 having the soundproof case 2 is constructed in such a manner that the generator 35, the engine 30 and the muffler 32 are arranged in this order and accommodated in the ducts 7, 8 and the fan cover 16. The suction opening 16a of the fan cover 16 opens into the center compartment 22 and the centrifugal fan 40 is provided inside of the suction opening 16a, so that by rotation of the centrifugal fan 40, air is introduced into the center compartment 22 through the front compartment 21 from exterior of the soundproof case 2 and inhaled in the fan cover 16 through the slits 46b in the starter case 46 of the recoil starter 45, the space between the fan cover 16 and the starter case 46, and the suction opening 16a (streams of the air are shown by arrows of dotted line in Figs. 4 and 7). As shown in Fig. 7, air inhaled in the fan cover 16 through the suction opening 16a by the fan blade 41 on the front face of the centrifugal fan 40 flows along the inner peripheral surface of the fan cover 16 and the outside of the outer-rotor 36 of the generator 35 toward the engine 30 to cool the engine. However, a part of the air flowing toward the engine 30 is directed to the inside of the outer-rotor 36 through a space between the generator 35 and the engine 30 by action of the fan blade 42 on the rear face of the centrifugal fan 40 to cool the generating coil and returns to the centrifugal fan 42 through the ventilating holes 36b in the bottom wall of the outer-rotor 36 for recirculation. The air introduced in the engine 30 including the above-mentioned recirculated air cools the engine and then flows upward guided by the ducts 7, 8 to cool the muffler 32 (Fig. 4). After cooling the muffler 32, the air is discharged to the exterior through the discharge opening 8a of the soundproof case 2 positioned above the muffler facing the exterior. Since the center compartment 22 communicates with the front compartment 21 through the communication open hole 5c of the front frame member 5, air introduced from the exterior through the suction holes 4a, 4b into the front compartment 21 is inhaled in the center compartment 22. At that time, the front compartment 21 acts as a labyrinth duct for introducing exterior air which restrains leakage of suction noise occurring in the center compartment 22. The inverter device 60 is positioned in the course of the suction air stream from the suction holes 4a, 4b to be cooled effectively. The generator 35, the engine 30 and the muffler 32 which are heat sources are covered by the fan cover 16 and the ducts 7, 8 to be isolated from other instruments, and the air inhaled in the fan cover 16 by the centrifugal fan 40 through the suction opening 16a opening into the center compartment 22 cools firstly the generator 35 of relatively low temperature and then the engine 30 and the muffler 32 of higher temperature and discharged to the exterior through the discharge opening 8a. Therefore, an efficient cooling can be carried out. Since the centrifugal fan 40 is attached to the outer-rotor 36 of the generator 30, the cooling fan 40 of large capacity can be furnished and a high fan supporting strength can be obtained. Since the muffler 32 is disposed above the engine 30 in such a manner that the hotter instrument is positioned at the higher position and the discharge opening 8a is provided above the muffler 32, a reasonable cooling air stream can be generated for efficient cooling. The above-mentioned ventilating construction having the generator 35, the engine 30 and the muffler 32 arranged in this order and covered by the fan cover 16 and the ducts 7, 8 is very simple. Since the engine 30 is disposed in rear of the generator 35, the muffler 32 is disposed above the engine 30 and the cooling air passage formed by the ducts 7, 8 is bent in L-shape, size of the soundproof case 2 in front-rear direction can be made small, the space in the soundproof case 2 can be utilized efficiently for enabling to arrange other instruments and the engine-operated generator can be made compact in its entirety. Further, since the generator 35 is an outer-rotor type generator and the outer-rotor 35 serves as a flywheel of the engine 30, there is no need to provide a flywheel otherwise and size of the engine-operated generator in the axial direction (front-rear direction) can be made small. Since output of the multipolar generator 35 is converted into alternating current of a predetermined frequency by the inverter 60, size of the generator itself in the axial direction can be made small. In addition, since the cylinder 30b of the engine 30 is inclined sideways and the muffler 32 is disposed above, vertical size of the engine-operated generator can be restrained small while disposing the muffler 32 of a large capacity. The engine 30 as a noise source is doubly covered by a duct composed of the duct 7 and the glass wool duct 8 and the soundproof case 2 on the outside of the duct, so that a high soundproof effect can be obtained. Since the output of the multipolar generator 35 is converted into an alternating current of a predetermined frequency, there is no need to maintain the rotational speed constant regardless of the load in order to maintain the output frequency constant as in case of a synchronous generator which has been used in this kind of engine-operated generator, therefore the rotational speed can be reduced when the load is not large to reduce operation noise greatly.

Claims: An engine-operated generator wherein a soundproof case (2) encloses therein a cooling fan (40), a generator (35), an engine (30) for driving both the generator (35) and the cooling fan (40), and a muffler (32), which are disposed in this order, wherein a duct for cooling air (7, 16, 8) is provided in the soundproof case (2) to extend from a region of said cooling fan (40) to a region of said muffler (32) in a manner to enclose the cooling fan (40), the generator (35), the engine (30) and the muffler (32), and wherein said duct has at an upstream end thereof a suction opening (16a) located within the soundproof case (2) and at a downstream end thereof a discharge hole (8a) communicating with an exterior of the soundproof case (2), characterised in that : said duct (7, 16, 8) for cooling air extends horizontally and continuously and surrounds outer peripheries of the cooling fan (40), the generator (35), and the engine (30) and the muffler (32) in such a manner as to constantly isolate the cooling fan (40), the generator (35), the engine (30) and the muffler (32) from instruments disposed in a space defined between the duct (7, 16, 8) and the soundproof case (2) and as to cause cooling air sucked through said suction opening (16a) by the cooling fan (40) to flow into the duct through the generator (35), the engine (30) and the muffler (32) in this order and then to be discharged through said discharge hole (8a), and said muffler is at a higher position than the engine (30). An engine-operated generator as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that said generator (35) is an outer-rotor type generator having an outer rotor (36) serving as a flywheel of said engine, and said cooling fan (40) is provided in said suction opening (16a) integrally with the outer-rotor. An engine-operated generator as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterised in that said engine (30) has a cylinder inclined sideways obliquely. An engine-operated generator as claimed in any one of claims 1, 2 and 3, characterised in that said muffler (32) is elongated in a direction perpendicular to a rotary shaft of said engine (30). An engine-operated generator as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that said generator (35) is an outer-rotor type multipolar generator having a magnet rotor serving as a flywheel of said engine, and an inverter device (60) is provided for converting an output of said generator into an alternating current of a predetermined frequency.

Inventors: HIROSE TADAFUMI, HIROSE, TADAFUMI
Applicants: HONDA MOTOR CO LTD, HONDA GIKEN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1998
Main classification: F02B63
IPC codes: F02B63, F01P5, F02B77, F02B67, F02B75