Patent GB-1059373-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to rotary piston engines and pumps
IPC: F02B53/00
Filed: 1963-10-09
Abstract: 1, 059, 373. Rotary engines and pumps. C. BANCROFT. Oct. 9, 1963 [Oct. 12, 1962], No. 39857/63. Heading F1F. A rotary engine or pump of the intermittent abutment type, as described, an internal combustion engine, comprises a casing 20, Figs. 1, 2, formed with cooling fins 49, inlet ports 56, 57 through which a fuel-air mixture or air only is supplied, exhaust ports 58, 59 and openings 60a, 61a fitted with spark-plugs or fuel-injectors leading to firing chambers 60, 61. The inlet ports 56, 57 communicate with annular passages 55 on either side of an annular working chamber 48 in which diametral pairs of vane pistons 51 .. 54 rotate with accelerating and decelerating motion. Each pair of pistons is mounted on a tubular support member (62), (63), (64), (65), Fig. 4 (not shown) with each support member provided with diametrically disposed sector portions (62a), (62b), (63a), (63b) &c. formed with radial slots (62a'), (62b'), (63a'), (63b') &c. in which slide blocks 71, 70, Fig. 1, in the outer support members (62), (65) and blocks 73 in the inner support members (63), (64). The blocks 71, 70 are mounted on journals (43a), (43b) and (38a), (38b), projecting respectively from rotary connecting members (43), (38) whilst the blocks 73 are mounted on journals (72a), (72b), (72c), (72d) projecting from opposite sides of a common rotary connecting member (72). The members (43), (38) include pins (44), (39) respectively, three to each member, mounting rollers engageable in slots (47a), (42a) in stationary plates (47), (42) to connect members (43), (38) to eccentric shafts 35, 32, Fig. 1, bearingly mounted in eccentric stepped bores of output shafts 23, 22 concentric with the casing axis. The arrangement is such that as the shafts 35, 32 rotate about the common axis of shafts 23, 22 they also rotate about their own axes to reciprocate the blocks 71, 73, 70 to move the piston pairs relative to each other to alternately increase and decrease the volume between a piston of one pair and the adjacent piston of another pair and also include a phase in which the pistons are stationary to carry out the phases of a combustion cycle of suction, compression, ignition, expansion and exhaust. As shown in Fig. 2, three of the piston pairs are adjacent the firing chambers 60, 61, the gaseous mixture or air being fully compressed between the pistons 53, 51 and transferred to the firing chambers. Ignition then takes place, the pistons then being momentary stationary and the combusted gases pass into the spaces between the pistons 51, 54 to act on the pistons 54 and rotate the latter during the expansion phase. The forces applied to the journals 72a, 72b, 72c, 72d are such that the centrifugal forces act in opposite directions and tend to cancel each other out so that the member 72 is only moderately loaded. In another embodiment there are three pairs of vane pistons and the actuating mechanism includes counterweighted crank arms and toothed gears. Two or more units may be coupled together to form a multi-unit engine. In operating as a fluid motor, pressurized fluid is admitted to the inlet ports and is permitted to expand in casing to drive the pistons. In operating as a pump, the pumped fluid is discharged through the openings 60a, 61a.