Patent ID: 8487466

Claim:
A continuous-flow machine, comprising: at least two rotors, mounted to be rotatable about a rotation axis in mutually opposite directions and on which blades or vanes are arranged, a machine shaft, mounted to be rotatable; a drive mechanism, to connect the machine shaft to the at least two rotors and to convert a rotary movement of the machine shaft to rotary movements of the at least two rotors in mutually opposite directions, or vice versa; and a housing which forms a channel for a flow of a fluid, wherein the at least two rotors are arranged one behind the other in the channel in a flow direction of the fluid, the machine shaft and the at least two rotors are annular and are mounted to be rotatable in the housing, and the at least two annular rotors each include an annulus inner face and an annulus outer face, and wherein the blades or vanes are arranged on the annulus inner face, wherein the drive mechanism includes a first drive wheel, a plurality of second drive wheels being arranged distributed in the circumferential direction of the annular drive mechanism and each including a drive shaft, rotatable about a rotation axis and a third drive wheel, the first drive wheel is connected to the machine shaft such that they rotate together, the third drive wheel is connected to a first of the at least two rotors such that they rotate together, and the drive shafts of the second drive wheels are mounted such that they can rotate in the other of the at least two rotors, and wherein the second drive wheels are coupled to the first drive wheel and to the third drive wheel.