Electromechanical transducer particularly suitable for a linear alternator driven by a free-piston stirling engine
Granted: July 22, 1986
Patent Number:
4602174
An electromechanical transducer particularly useful as a linear alternator driven by a free-piston Stirling engine is disclosed. A relatively high permeability material is formed into a flux loop having at least a pair of spaced gaps formed transversely through the loop. The gaps are aligned along a reciprocation path for a magnet which is mechanically mounted for reciprocation between alternate positions within the gaps. The magnet has a magnetization vector transverse to the…
Piston centering method and apparatus for free-piston Stirling engines
Granted: April 22, 1986
Patent Number:
4583364
In a free piston Stirling engine, an improved method and apparatus for preventing the creep of the mean position of the piston as a result of leakage of the working gas between the working space and the bounce space. A passageway is formed between the bounce space and the working space and extends through ports which interface with the piston and the displacer. Unlike the prior art, the port in the piston which registers with another port is offset from the mean position of the piston.…
Drive linkage for Stirling cycle and other machines
Granted: October 15, 1985
Patent Number:
4546663
An improved linkage which is advantageously used in linking the crank of a Stirling machine to its coaxially reciprocating pistons. A swing lever having at least three spaced pivot axes is connected at one of its pivot axes to the machine housing and at a second pivot axes to one of the pistons. A bell crank, also having at least three pivot axes which are triangularly arranged, is rotatably connected at one of its pivot axes to the crank throw pin and pivotally connected at a second one…
Pressure modulation system for load matching and stroke limitation of Stirling cycle apparatus
Granted: July 10, 1984
Patent Number:
4458495
A Stirling heat pump driven by a Stirling engine has its stroke limited under conditions of decreasing pump load. This stroke limitation is accomplished by effecting the flow of gas from the engine to the heat pump in response to a maximum piston stroke. Preferably, a valved passageway is formed in communication between the gas in the engine and the gas of the pump. The passageway is valved by a means which normally blocks the flow of gas but opens when the piston of either the pump or…
Hermetically sealed transmission system for a free piston Stirling engine
Granted: February 7, 1984
Patent Number:
4429530
A torsionally flexible seal formed with alternating layers of elastic and reinforcing material provides a gas-tight barrier between a drive shaft and a portion of the Stirling engine housing surrounding a passageway through which the drive shaft extends. The shaft is connected to a series of mechanical linkage devices located within the housing which transmits power between the linearly reciprocative power piston and rotationally reciprocative drive shaft and which eliminates…
Wedge-shaped solar air heating device
Granted: November 22, 1983
Patent Number:
4416255
Wedge-shaped solar air heating device adapted to be mounted exteriorly of a building with its tapered end uppermost and in operative relationship with a window opening or other opening in the wall of the building, said device having two interconnected chambers, one for passage of cool air and the other for heating said cool air by solar radiation.
Hydrodynamic lubrication system for piston devices particularly Stirling engines
Granted: November 1, 1983
Patent Number:
4412418
An apparatus for effecting the lubrication of expansible chamber devices of the type having a cylinder with a piston reciprocating therein and having fluid flowing in and out of the chamber. The invention is particularly suitable for free piston Stirling engines and pumps. A torque force is applied to the piston causing it to spin sufficiently to entrain and drag along its outer surface some of the fluid in the expansible chamber so as to separate its outer surface from the wall of the…
Hermetically sealed transmission system for a free piston Stirling engine
Granted: September 27, 1983
Patent Number:
4406124
A torsionally flexible seal formed with alternating layers of elastic and reinforcing material provides a gas-tight barrier between a drive shaft and a portion of the Stirling engine housing surrounding a passageway through which the drive shaft extends. The shaft is connected to a series of mechanical linkage devices located within the housing which transmits power between the linearly reciprocative power piston and rotationally reciprocative drive shaft and which eliminates…
Center-porting and bearing system for free-piston stirling engines
Granted: September 20, 1983
Patent Number:
4404802
The displacer and piston of a Stirling engine are provided with inner cylindrical walls which serve as bearing surfaces in close fitting, sliding engagement with the outer bearing surface of a longitudinally extending, tubular center post. The internal bore of the center post is in fluid communication with the bounce space. Center porting is provided by passages in the piston, displacer and tubular wall of the center post so that fluid communication is provided periodically between the…
Method and apparatus for accumulating, storing and releasing thermal energy
Granted: September 13, 1983
Patent Number:
4403643
A heat storage medium includes a halide or sulfate salt of a divalent or trivalent metal which salt has hydrated and dehydrated states with high heat of hydration. The medium is dehydrated by heating it with heat derived from a natural source such as solar or geothermal energy or from industrial waste heat and the evolved water removed from the medium. The heat is recovered by rehydrating the medium by the addition of water. The medium may be a porous mass, a slurry of the salt in a…
Drive mechanism for Stirling engine displacer and piston and other reciprocating bodies
Granted: July 20, 1982
Patent Number:
4339960
A drive mechanism is disclosed for drivingly connecting two reciprocating bodies to a rotating body and is particularly useful for linking a single pin crank of a crank-type Stirling engine to its displacer and power piston. The drive means has at least two slotted yokes, each connected to a different one of the reciprocating bodies such as the pistons of the Stirling engine. The pin of the crank extends through the slots of both slotted yokes. The slots are transverse to each other and…
Drive mechanism for Stirling engine displacer and other reciprocating bodies
Granted: May 25, 1982
Patent Number:
4330992
A mechanism is disclosed for driving the displacer of a crank-type Stirling engine at the same frequency but out of phase with the power piston of the engine. A biasing means is linked to the displacer for applying a biasing force which urges the displacer in one direction of its reciprocation. A flexible band is secured to the displacer for applying a force opposite to the biasing force. The other end of the band is secured to an anchor which is mounted on another part of the apparatus.…
Hydrodynamic lubrication system for piston devices particularly Stirling engines
Granted: May 25, 1982
Patent Number:
4330993
This invention relates to a free piston Stirling engine in which a structure for aiding in the lubrication of the engine is provided. The piston of the Stirling engine is provided with turbine surfaces, such as blades. Working fluid entering the cylinder chamber applies a spin torque to the piston thereby causing the piston to spin and entrain gas about its perimeter for hydrodynamic gas lubrication.
Method and apparatus for accumulating, storing and releasing thermal energy
Granted: September 29, 1981
Patent Number:
4291755
A heat storage medium includes a halide or sulfate salt of a divalent or trivalent metal which salt has hydrated and dehydrated states with high heat of hydration. The medium is dehydrated by heating it with heat derived from a natural source such as solar or geothermal energy or from industrial waste heat and the evolved water removed from the medium. The heat is recovered by rehydrating the medium by the addition of water. The medium may be a porous mass, a slurry of the salt in a…
Spring and resonant system for free-piston Stirling engines
Granted: January 15, 1980
Patent Number:
4183214
A free-piston Stirling engine having a double acting, gas spring system for applying bi-directional, resilient spring forces to the displacer piston rod and also a free-piston Stirling engine having a displacer and power piston which are mechanically resonant at the operating frequency of the engine. The springing system is a gas containing compartment which is formed in communication with the effective end of the displacer rod. An adjustable spool valve arrangement may be formed in the…
Sun-tracking control system for solar collector
Granted: March 27, 1979
Patent Number:
4146785
A solid-state control system for the control of a collector array, the system incorporating a sun-tracking mode, de-focusing at excessive temperatures, returning to a stand-by position after sunset, and prepositioning at sunrise.
Solar energy collector
Granted: September 12, 1978
Patent Number:
4112922
A solar energy collector for use primarily in a closed-loop system has a fluid conduit of serpentine configuration which comprises a plurality of relatively thin extruded aluminum tubes, each tube having a flat top and bottom wall and lateral flat lips or flanges extending longitudinally along opposite sides thereof and coplanar with the bottom wall forming therewith a flat base for the tubes, the flanges providing means for joining the tubes by welding in an array in side by side…
Combined flat plate - focal point solar heat collector
Granted: April 20, 1976
Patent Number:
3951128
A solar heat collector system which is comprised of a roof or wall structure element, a conduit for heat exchange fluid in the roof or wall structure element, and a focal point reflector plate behind the conduit and in the structure element. Preferably the conduit is of a flat elliptical cross section. The flat plate-focal point collector adds an advantage of reflecting sunlight directly onto the conduit for heat exchange fluid in order to insure more efficient heat exchange between the…
