Patent ID: 6939117

Claim:
A rotary machine including at least: an inner housing; an outer housing in which the inner housing resides, one of the inner and outer housings being rotatable relative to another of the inner and outer housings, with a working chamber through which a working fluid flows being defined between the inner housing and the outer housing; a plurality of gates supported by one of the inner housing and the outer housing, wherein the housing supporting the gates constitutes a supporting housing and the housing not supporting the gates constitutes a non-supporting housing, each gates swingable along its respective longitudinal axis between a sealing position in which the gates form a seal against a surface of non-supporting housing and a retracted position in which the gates lie substantially against a surface of the supporting housing facing the working chamber, said supporting housing provided with a plurality of inlet ports through which the working fluid flows into the working chamber; a plurality of lobes supported by the non-supporting housing and which form a seal against a facing surface of the supporting housing thereby dividing the working chamber into a plurality of sub-chambers, each lobe defining an exhaust port for exhausting the working fluid from an adjacent sub-chamber wherein each of the exhaust ports comprising an axially extending bore formed through each of the lobes and a plurality of feed holes that passes through each of the lobes for communicating the working fluid between the working chamber and the bore; and a valve operatively associated with said supporting housing that directs said working fluid into the working chamber via the support housing, the valve comprising a shaft extending coaxially into and rotatable relative to the supporting housing, the shaft having an axial passage in fluid communication with a supply of said working fluid and a plurality of radially extending holes providing fluid communication between said axial passage and the inlet ports in the supporting housing for a predetermined period of time per revolution of the shaft relative to the supporting housing.