COMPRESSOR PROVIDED WITH AN IMPROVED PISTON

Abstract: Electric compressor comprising a piston provided with a respective head and a valve plate mounted between said head and the body of the cylinder and provided with a gas suction port, said head being provided with a protrusion adapted to be intermittently introduced in said suction port substantially in the top dead-center position of the piston. Said piston is provided externally, in the portion thereof which is opposite to the head side, with a recess that is accessible from the outside and is orientated towards the inner volume of said piston, said recess penetrating the body of said piston down to a depth which is at least equal to the height of said protrusion above the plane of said head.

Description: COMPRESSOR PROVIDED WITH AN IMPROVED PISTON DESCRIPTION The piesent invention refers to a particulai embodiment of an altei natmg-motion piston 1 ecipi ocat g in a I espective cylinder To moie effectively exemplify and more clearly illustrate the invention, said piston is assumed to work m close association with a compressor for refiigerators, m particulai household-type appliances, without this however limiting the scope of the invention solely to such an application or connection It is a laigely known fact that, m view of improving the theimodynamic efficiency of compiessors, it is absolutely necessary for the volume of the discharge port, which is not affected by the displacement of the piston, to be as small as possible The leasons behind such a leqmrement aie well known to those skilled in the art so that they shall not be dealt with any longei here In view of artificially reducing such a volume, the piactice is known m the art, for instance fiom the disclosure m US 5, 149,254, of piovidmg, on the head of the related piston, a protmsion (post 54) that is so arranged and sized as to enable said protmsion to almost fully penetrate into the dischaige port when the piston I eaches its top dead centei , without this of course giving use to any mterfeience with other parts neaiby This expedient enables the volume of the discharge port that can be occupied by the gas to be temporarily reduced in an artful manner, but to a quite considerable extent, so that the overall compressor efficiency can actually be boosted sensibly, as already mentioned above The above solution is certainly simple, reliable, economic and safe, however, in the course of the highly automated production of this kmd of pistons a number of practical drawbacks tend to emerge, as described below in greater detail The grinding operation on the outei cylmdei of said compiessor pistons is carried out by means of a grinding technique withouta fixed and secured center of rotation, the same process is generally used for producing millions of cylindrical parts such as the cylindrical lolleis of lollei bearings The grinding process essentially consists m a continuous sequence of said pistons carried by conveying means through a plmality of gimdmg wheels or similar means being abraded by the action of said plurality of grinding wheels or similar means The size, oπentation and numbei of said grinding means are such as to enable the pistons conveyed into such a piocessmg step to be sent theie m sequence with their axes coinciding with and paiallel to the dnection of the motion thereof through said plurality of grinding means Howevei , if the pistons happen to be ai 1 anged m contact with each othei , in the sense that the head of one such piston is m contact with the lear edge of the neighbouπng piston, then a senous diawback anses m that, owing to the afore mentioned protrusion, said pistons tend to assume a position which is slightly inclined with iβspect to the dnection of motion The lesult is that they would come up obliquely m front of oi with lespect to said gimdmg means and, theiefoie, would practically prevent the grinding piocess from being earned out In view of eliminating such a drawback, said pistons are therefore spaced from each other so that the protrusion thereof is prevented from touching any other piston. Such a very simple and effechve measure of spacmg the pistons from each other, however, has the effect of slowing down and, therefore, decreasmg the productivity of the grinding operation, smce the pistons must be cadenced mto the process at a much lower rate, owmg to the need for their forward speed to be maintained unaltered, while the "virtual" length thereof, le the length including both the actual length of the piston and the intermediate space that separates it from the subsequent piston in the sequence, is on the contrary increased, as this is best illustrated in the accompanying Figure 1 It therefoie would be desirable, and is actually a mam purpose of the present invention, to provide a technical solution that, when applied to such a compressor piston, does away with the above described drawback in a simple, low-cost and reliable manner Such an aim shall furthermore be leached through the use of techniques and materials that aie simple and readily available on the market, while avoiding to affect the performance capabilities and the overall leliabihty of the related compressor to any extent According to the present invention such aims ai e i eached m a piston of the kind descπbed below by way of non-hmitmg example with refeience to the accompanying drawings, m which - Figure 1 is a symbolic lepresentation of a piston grinding plant according to state-of-art technology, - Figure 2 is a symbolic lepiesentation of the same piston grinding plant accoiding to the piesent invention, - Figure 3 is a view from the opposite side of the head of a piston according to the present invention, - Figure 4 is a longitudinal-section view of the same piston shown m Figure 3, - Figure 5 is a view from the head of the same piston, - Figuie 6 is a sectional view of two pistons according to the present invention, in which the head of one of them is m contact with the bottom portion of the other one, - Figuie 7 is a perspective, partially cross-sectioned view of a valiant of a piston according to the present invention, along with the therewith associated connecting rod With leference to Figure 1 the gimdmg piocess can be noticed to be carried out presently by making use of at least two wheels, le an adjustment wheel 1 and an actual grinding wheel 2 Between said wheels, which lotate on paiallel axes, a pluiality of pistons 3 aie caused to pass m a sequence, prefeiably carried theiethiough on a belt 4 oi any othei equivalent conveying and support means In view of pi eventing the piotmsion of each piston head fiom interfering with the contiguous piston as mentioned above, each piston is spaced fiom the next one by a sepaiation interval 5 obtained thiough piopei cadencmg and sepaiatmg means 6 that aie laigely known m the ail It can be leadily appieciated that if m this case the foiwaid-movmg l te of the pistons is 700 mm/mm the piston length is 23 mm and the distance of each piston from the next one is 25 mm, then the piston output cadence will amount to 700/(23+25) x 60 = 875 pistons/horn Howevei if said pistons could be sent to such a gimdmg opeiation without any spacing being piovided between them and, theiefore close contact with each othei , as this is symbolically illustrated m Figure 2, then all other conditions lemaimng unalteied said piston output te would amount to 700/23 x 60 = 1826 pistons/houi ιe obtaining m this way an hourly output that is far more than the double value of the one achievable with prior-art technology According to the invention, the possibility of feeding the pistons to grinding with the head of each piston m close contact with the bottom of the contiguous piston, wherein each such piston head is provided with the afore described protrusion, is obtained by providing each piston with a substantially cylindrical recess 7 provided on the side of the piston which is opposed to the head 8 thereof, as this is best illustrated in Figure 4, so as to make it possible, by arranging the pistons against each other and oriented m the same direction, foi the protrusion on the head of a piston to freely enter, without any constraint and in any angular position of the same pistons, in said recess of the contiguous piston, thereby obtaining that said protuberances do not interfere with the contiguous pistons, which therefore can maintain the same axis and, at the same time, lemam in close contact with each othei To such a purpose, said lecess must have following features it shall first of all extend inside the body of the piston foi a depth that is at least equal to the height of the protrusion 9 fiom the level of the head 8, furtheimoie said lecess shall be capable of accomodatmg the piotrusion of the contiguous piston, such as this is illustrated m Figure 6 legaidless of the position m which the pistons may find themselves in i elation with each othei m the dnection of lotation with respect to the common axis 10 This practically not only enables the pistons to be delivered to the gimdmg line regaidless of the actual angulai position oi oπentation thereof, but also makes it possible for each piston fully free to rotate during grinding and transport, independently of the two pistons that precede and follow it Such a link-up can be obtained with a recess 7 that piovides, towaid the outei cylindrical surface of the piston, a circular edge 12 having no laiger thickness than the minimum distance between said protrusion 9 piojectmg from the head of the piston and the ciiculai edge 13 of the same head Given such constraints, it can be readily appreciated that such a recess will preferably have a cylindrical shape. However, such a recess may also be given any other appropriate shape, provided that it enables the basic requirement placed on the same recess to be met, ie. the capability thereof to fully accomodate said protrusion thereinto . With particular reference to Figure 7, it can be noticed that the invention is My applicable, provided that the due provisions are made as described above, also to pistons provided with a gudgeon pin that is made integral with the respective connecting rod, and free of any through-hole provided to accomodate said gudgeon pin. In such a case, said recess comes to be situated in front of a cavity 20 provided within the body 21 of the piston and adapted to accomodate said gudgeon pin 22 made integrally with the head 23 of the respective connecting rod 24.

Claims: CLA S 1. Electric compressor, m particular for household refrigerators, comprising a cylinder body, a piston piovided with a respective head (8), a valve plate aiianged between said head and the body of said cylinder and provided with a gas suction port, said head being provided with a protrusion (9) capable of being metrmittently inserted m said port, characterized in that said piston is externally provided, in the portion theieof which is opposed to the head side, with a lecess (7) that is accessible from the outside and is oriented towards the inner volume of said piston 2. Electnc compiessoi accoidmg to claim 1 , characterized in that said recess extends into the body of said piston down to a depth that is at least equal to the height of said protrusion (9) above the plane of said head 3. Electric compiessor according to claim 2, characterized in that said recess has a substantially cyhndiical shape having its axis (10) coinciding with the axis of the piston, said lecess being furthei delimited externally by a circular edge (12) that constitutes the teiminal portion of the cylindrical surface of the piston opposed to said head, the thickness of said ciicular edge being not greater than the minimum distance between said piotrusion (9) piojectmg from the haed and the circulai edge (13) of the same head 4. Electric compressor according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said recess (7) is made integrally with said piston. 5. Electric compressor according to any of the preceding claims, in which said piston is furthermore adapted to accomodate at least a gudgeon pin (22) that may be possibly provided integrally with the respective connecting rod (24), characterized in that said piston is not provided with any through-hole for accomodating said gudgeon pin, said cylindrical recess being arranged in front of a cavity (20) provided within the body of said piston and adapted to at least partially accomodate said gudgeon pin along with the head (23) of said connecting rod (24).

Inventors: LANG RUDOLF, LANG, RUDOLF
Applicants: LANG RUDOLF, ZANUSSI ELETTROMECC, LANG, RUDOLF, ZANUSSI ELETTROMECCANICA S.P.A.
Application year: 1998
Main classification: F04B39
IPC codes: F04B39