Patent ID: 8360742

Claim:
A swash plate compressor comprising: a housing including a cylinder bore, a suction chamber, a discharge chamber and a crank chamber, a drive shaft having an axis and supported by the housing to rotate in the crank chamber, a swash plate supported on the drive shaft in the crank chamber, a piston accommodated in the cylinder bore to reciprocate, a motion conversion mechanism provided between the swash plate and the piston to convert wobbling of the swash plate into reciprocation of the piston, and a release passage for communication between the crank chamber and the suction chamber, the compressor being characterized in that the release passage is communicated to an oil rich region, in which lubricating oil is large in quantity, in the crank chamber, a valve mechanism is provided to increase an opening ratio of the release passage, as the rotational speed of the drive shaft increases, the valve mechanism includes a mass body and a spring, the mass body is positioned so as to separate from the axis of the drive shaft due to centrifugal force which acts on the mass body when the drive shaft rotates and to increase the opening ratio of the release passage due to the separation of the mass body from the axis, and the spring is positioned such that the bias of the spring resists the centrifugal force.