Orbital Engine

Submitted 3 years ago

Introductory of
ORBITAL ENGINE
By Ferenc Lestar
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION.
Conventional piston engines and compressors use the crankshaft with an attached piston rod linkage, thereby causing limitations in the areas of efficiency, balance, noise, power shaft rpm reduction, weight and coast. These limitations are caused by five primary disadvantages: (1) Conventional crankshaft mechanisms oscillate the piston rods causing rod vibrations and piston side thrust resulting in piston friction. (2) Conventional crankshaft mechanisms have constrains for increasing piston dwell at the top of the strokes to improve engine efficiency. (3) Because of the piston's connecting rod angularity, conventional crankshaft mechanisms have non-harmonic piston motion which causes secondary inertia force vibrations for most arrangements. (4) For the operations of diesel engines, conventional crankshaft mechanisms cause piston knocking against the cylinder walls because of piston rod oscillations in combination with high combustion pressures. (5) Crankshafts require heavy counterweights for balance.
The diametrically opposed piston-yoke crankshaft (scotch yoke) has been acknowledged for over 100 years. US Pat Nos. 399593, 2513514, 4013048 and 5331926 disclose yoke crankshaft engines. There are limitations here as well caused by four disadvantages. (1) All of these designs also show side-thrust, like conventional engines. (2) In the case of diesel operation, the piston rods need to be extra heavy for supporting forces related to the lateral movement of the crankpin roller bearing. (3) They are limited to horizontally-opposed cylinder arrangement. (4) There are feasibility limitations.
In order to overcome the kinematic disadvantages of crankshaft mechanism, cam engines have been developed. The US Pat Nos 1817375, 2124604, 4697552 are disclosed single-plate three-lobe cam engines. There are limitations here also caused four disadvantages: (1)The link side thrust (2)The link friction (3)The links require precision bearing surfaces that maintain contact with precision aligned rollers and link guides (4)The link guides require high oil pressures to reduce friction and wear.
Another development occurred to replace the crankshaft: the ratchet or one way clutched engine, which is a simple-looking solution. But at high speed, the ratchet mechanism will be unreliable, causing a so-called 'float phenomenon' to take place.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The Orbital Engine provides the novel and simple crankshaft-less, reciprocating piston machines either in engine, fluid/gas/air driven motors or compressor application. For illustrative purposes this invention will be exemplified hereinafter by reference to its internal combustion engine application.
The Orbital Engine also belongs to the internal combustion engine category. The Orbital Engine has a very unique and the simplest possible arrangement how to convert linear motion to rotational one. Since it does away with the crankshaft, the angular connecting rod and counter balance weight, it is less complex to manufacture and maintain. Because the Orbital Engine has fewer moving parts and less material; consequently, it runs smoother, has less weight, less material stress, lower manufacturing cost, and greater efficiency than the conventional ones.

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