Patent ID: 7780425

Claim:
A piston compressor suitable for charging an internal combustion engine, comprising: at least one cylinder having at least opposing first and second cylinder walls, at least one double-headed piston disposed in the at least one cylinder, the at least one double-headed piston having opposing first and second piston heads, wherein two working chambers are respectively defined between the first cylinder wall and the first piston head and between the second cylinder wall and the second piston head, each of the two working chambers having at least one inlet valve and at least one outlet valve operably coupled thereto, wherein the inlet and outlet valves are arranged and constructed such that the inlet valves and the outlet valves alternately open and close for each stroke of the double-headed piston, a housing surrounding the cylinder, the housing having a suction port and an exhaust port, a space being formed between the housing and the cylinder, which space is divided by separating walls in such a way as to form an inlet channel that joins the suction port with the inlet valves and to form an outlet channel that joins the exhaust port with the outlet valves; two crankshafts arranged and constructed to rotate in opposite directions at the same speed and to reciprocally move the at least one double-headed piston within the at least one cylinder, wherein the two crankshafts extend perpendicularly to the moving direction of the piston between the first and second piston heads of the at least one double-headed piston, through the at least one cylinder and at least partially through the housing; and at least two sliding blocks disposed on a crankshaft-facing surface of each of the first and second piston heads, each sliding block being slidably movable perpendicular to the reciprocating movement of the at least one double-headed piston and engaging at least one eccentrically-mounted crank disk formed on a respective end of the two crankshafts.