US1515378A - Steam engine - Google Patents

Description

Ndvfll, 1924.

J. 1C. WILLIAMS STEAM ENGINE Filed Nov'. 21 192) 5&

' ATTORNEY 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR 1,515,378 J. c. WILLIAMS STEAM ENGINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 m mo ATTORNEY J. C. WILLIAMS STEAM ENGINE Filed Nov. 21

4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR hm \h w% um Ax w ATTORNEY Nov. 11, 1924- .1 c. WILLIAMS STEAM ENGINE Filgd Nov. 21. 19 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 n R gw knw TQQ l INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 11, 1924.

iJNlTED STATES JOSEPH C. WILLIAMS, OF

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

STEAM ENGINE.

Application filed. November 21, 1921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J osErH O. VVILLLAMS,

a. citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Steam Engines; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

1 This invention relates to steam engines and particularly to a portable steam engine capable of being used as a prime mover for propelling a motor vehicle.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide an inexpensive, light, durable and compact reciprocatory engine capable of generating considerable power.

The invention can be so constructed that the usual crank case can be eliminated and an important feature of the mechanism is the inclusion of a single valve-actuating cam whereby a plurality of valves in a plurality of steam chests for controlling the steam admission to a plurality of power cylinders may be controlled from the single element, thereby minimizing the required elements for valve control and simplifying the operation thereof.

It is also important that the cam be so constructed that each admission valve will be open to exhaust during the entire'exhausting stroke of the piston, whereas the inlet side of the valve for the power side of the piston will be open only a fractional part of the entire stroke of the piston. By so constructing the valve motion that the exhaust will be open during the entire time that the cylinder is supposed to be exhausting, loss of power due to back pressure will be reduced to a minimum, if not wholly eliminated.

In order to confine the engine within a relatively small space I have found it convenient to arrange the power cylinders, the valve chest with the steam controlling valves, and the exhaust ports in a single block,-. which may be grouped about the center of a power shaft. Each power unit consisting of a piston and cylinder is adapt- Seriafl No. 516,583.

ed to deliver its power to the shaft so that the centrally located driving shaft will receive the power delivered from the several units.

Novel means is provided for delivering steam to the valve chests of the several steam units from a main-source of supply and novel means is provided for exhausting the spent motive fluid to be delivered to an oil and water separator or it will be rendered fit for subsequent use.

There are other novel features of the invention which will appear hereinafter, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. l is an elevational view of an engine constructed in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is v a transverse sectional view through the engine block.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal, sectional view through the engine, parts being omitted.

Fig. 5 is a projected diagram of the valveactuated cam.

Fig. 6 is an end view of the engine block, showing the inlet manifold and the exhaust manifold, and

Fig. 7 is across sectional view through the valve rod head guide, the valve rod head and the roller for engaging the cam groove.

Referring now to the drawings by numerals of reference:

1 designates an engine a plurality of bores for a plurality of engine units. In actual practice I prefer to arrange an odd number of engine units so that the liability of deadcentering will be eliminated.

In the present instance I have shown the block as being arranged for three engine units, the cranks of which are 120 apart so that there will be equal distribution of the power exerted by the several units on the drive shafts and whereby liability ofdead centering will be eliminated.

By reference to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the block is provided with three power cylinder bores 2, 3, and 4, each bore being, in I effect, an engine cylinder but integral with the block. Each cylinder is provided with a valve chest, the valve chests being designated '5, 6 and 7 There is also an exhaust condenser where block in which is cylinder or bore for each power cylinder, the exhaust cylinders being designated 8, 9 and 10.

Each valve chest is provided with a balanced piston type of valve, the valve chest being lined by a cylindrical lining 11 having port cuttings 12, 13 and 14 to coincide with the ports 15, 16 and 17. The port 15 discharges into the valve chest 6 and it is a counterpart of the ports 15 and 15 for the valve chests 7 and 5 respectively.

All the ports 15, 15 and 15 are supplied with pressure fluid through the medium of the manifold 18 having a nipple 19, by means of which the manifold may be connected to a steam supply pipe.

The manifold is fastened to the engine block by the nipples 20 (see Figs. 3 and 6) having cap nuts 21, by means of which the manifold is bolted to the nipples and the nipples are provided with ports 22 by means of which the steam may enter to the inlet ports 15, 15 and 15 to pass between the valve pistons 23 and 2 1 on the balanced piston valves 25.

ach engine unit is a counterpart of the other so a description of one will suffice for all.

Attention is called to the fact that in Fig. 3 I have shown in the upper part of the figure a balanced valve for the chest 6 with the steam port illustrated between the pis tons 23 and 24, while in the lower part of the figure, the piston 25 in valve chest 7 is shown as moving to open one valve port 26 for one of the power pistons 27 and uncovering the other port 28 to exhaust steam on the opposite side of the piston; therefore, live steam is being supplied and at this point it is desired to call attention to the fact that while the ports 26 and 28 alternately become inlet and exhaust ports, the valves 25 are caused to so function that the exhaust ports will be opened during the entire exhaust stroke of the piston in either direction. That is, when a piston has moved to substantially its full expansion stroke and just before it has reached the limit, the valve will crack open the port during the final movement of the piston and then remain open for practically the entire length of time that the piston is recovering or for practically the entire time that steam is functioning on the opposite side of the piston to provide power since the ports are spaced so that when the intake port is closed to the live steam, the exhaust port is still partly open at the end of the power stroke. This is an important feature because it enables the steam to be thoroughly exhausted and prevents trapping of the same, which would cause back pressure and decrease the efliciency of the engine.

The particular means for controlling the valves so that the desired result just enumerated can be accomplished will be apparent later on.

Referring to Figs. 2 and 3 it will be seen that when the steam is admitted from the inlet manifold, it will enter between the pistons 23 and 24 so if one piston is uncovering one of the ports between the two pistons, steam will be admitted to the cylinder but if one of the pistons is uncovering one of the ports between one of the pistons and the end of the valve chest, then the steam will be exhausting through the port 16 or 17, as the case may be, and enter the exhaust cylinders 9, 10 and 11 and discharge into the exhaust manifold 29, which is in communication with an oil and water separator 30 of appropriate construction, in turn communieating with the condenser (not shown) designed to condense the vapor or steam back to water so that it can be reintroduced into the boiler, as is well understood.

The exhaust manifold 29 is fastened to the end of the block by a plurality of tie rods 31, 32 and 33 (see Figs. 3 and 6). The tie rods pass through the center of the exhaust ports or cylinders 9, 10 and 11 and are tapped into the spacing stay bolts 34, 35 and. 36, which connect the plate or disk 37 to the engine block 1. The stay bolts 34, 35 and 36 hold the plate or disk 37 rigid but in spaced relation with respect to the block so that the plate can carry certain parts of the mechanism and, in turn, be secured to a complementary plate 38 fastened by pairs of rods 39 and 40, the plate 38 being also fastened to an end plate or disk 41 by the spacing bolts 42.

The disks or plates 37, 38 and 4 1 with their connections constitute the frame of the machine and provide supporting means for the movable parts, there-by dispensing with the necessity of employing expensive crank cases and the like, the structure being exceedingly light but strong enough to serve the purpose for which the invention is intended.

It will be apparent that the engine block and the plates 37, 38 and 41 are all held rigid together by the connections and that the movable parts may be conveniently secured thereto. For example, the drive shaft -3 extends entirely through the block 1 and through the'plates 37. 38 and 41, there being a thrust bearing 1 1 in the center of the plate 3? for the shaft; a similar thrust bearing 1-3 in the plate 38 and an anti-friction bearin e6 in the plate 11 whereby the shaft may be supported. Around the shaft and located between the plate 37 and the block 1 is a lubricating casing 47. which may be supplied from the cup l8 (see Fig. 1), so that the shaft can be lubricated.

Suitable stufiing boxes may be provided in the ends of the valve chests and piston cylinders. A stufling box 49 of conventional ltll) ous that the relative design is shown in Fig. 4 as applied to one of the valve chests and a stuffing box 50 of conventional design is shown in Fig. 4 as applied to one of the engine cylinders. It is to be understood that each valve chest and each engine cylinder may be appropriately equipped if desired. The opposite ends of the valve chests and engine cylinders are closed by plugs 51 and cylinder heads 52 p respectively.

Each piston 27 is provided with a piston rod 53, connected to a cross head 54, reciprocatorily mounted upon the guide rods 39 and 40 and connected to each cross head 54 is a link 55 which, in turn, is connected to a crank 56 mounted in bearings 57 and 58 and on each crank is a gear 59 meshing with the gear 60 on the shaft 43. The cranks for the three sets of motor units are set at 120 apart and since all of their gears mesh with, the gear 60, it is obvious that liability of dead centering will be avoided and since the cranks are set on the angles of one-third of the circle, it is obvipositions of the pistons and valves for controlling the steam from the respective valve chests will be operated accordingly.

Splined or keyed upon the shaft 43 is a cam block 61, a diagrammatic projection of which is shown in Fig. 5, to be referred to hereinafter.

On each valve 25 is a valve rod 62, which projects through its stuffing box 49 and carries on its end a head 63, the cross section of which is in the form of an inverted V and each head is guided in a block 64 fastened to the plate 37 so that there are three plates 64 and three heads 63 and each. head provided with a boss 65 on which is mounted a cam engaging roller 66 to en gage the groove 67 in the cam 61. The. cam 61 is held in position by adjusting screws 68, which engage in the end of the cam and in the ends of the block 69 (see Fig. 4) to adjust the cam and block between the bearings 44 and 45 to provide for end thrusts, the cam 61 and block 69 being held in their adjusted position by the jam nuts 70.

The heads are mounted around the center of the shaft 43 so as to be successively engaged by the different lobes of the cam 61 (see Fig. 5).

By reference to 5 it will be observed that the cam is divided into two parts, each divided into fractions of 100%, one-half of the cam being effective to open, close and initially open one valve piston 23 or 24 and the remaining half of the cam being effective for maintaining that particular valve piston open and then closing it. In other words, t e first half of the cam is designed to open the steam port and the power end of the cylinder and then close it until the piston has moved 90% of its power stroke,

then the port through which the steam has just been admitted will open during the last 10% of the stroke and remain open for 90% of the recovering stroke while the comple mentary piston on the same valve will be reversing the operation byclosing 10% of the stroke of the piston moving into power receiving position and allowing the inlet ort to remain open during 50% of the stroke and closed during 40% of the stroke. Therefore, the power cylinder will be takingin steam during one-half of the stroke of the piston and W111 be exhausting it from the opposite side during 100% of the stroke of the piston, it being understood that the cam is designed to impart a back and forth movement to the balanced piston valve in the steam chest for each revolution of the cam, and the valve heads 63 will be so arranged about the shaft 43 that the valves in the steam chestwill be properly timed to function so that the cranks will receive their power during the proper period of throw during the operation of the engine.

As an example, the valve 25 is designed so that when the inlet port, for example, 26, is opened three-sixteenths, the exhaust port will be opened five-sixteenths and since the s eed of the cam determined by the stroke of the piston 27 will be such that the valve will operate relatively slow, the exhaust port will be open approximately one and one-half times as long as the intake opening, and will close only to allow a slight cushion at the end of the piston stroke. Therefore, there is a variable between the inlet opening and the exhaust opening in the piston cylinder, the exhaust being open practically the entire time that the piston is moving on its stroke while the inlet opening is only open about one-third the time. This is an important feature because the expanded steam can exhaust readily without any back pressure, which would absorb part of the power generated by the expanding steam on the power side of the piston.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters-Patent is:

1. A steam engine comprising a block having a plurality of power cylinders therein, valve chests communicating with the power cylinders, means for exhausting steam from the power cylinders, pistons in the power cylinders, a plate in spaced relation with the block having guides for the stems of the valves and for the piston rods, a rotatable shaft, a

cam on said shaft communicating mot-ion to all of the valves, cross head guides, a plate spaced from, but connected to, the first named plate by said cross head guides, cross heads for the piston rods movable on said guides, a plate connected to the second mentioned plate and having crank bearings thereon, cranks in said bearings connected valves in the valve chests,

t0 the cross heads, gears on the cranks, and a gear on the shaft receiving motion from the gears on the cranks.

2. A steam engine comprising a plurality of engine units grouped about a common center, a plate spaced from, but secured to, said units, cross head guides, a second plate spaced from the first plate and secured thereto by said cross head guides, a third plate secured to the second plate, a shaft extending through the respective plates, cross heads on the cross head guides connected to the power elements of each unit, cranks carried by the third plate and receiving motion from the power elements of the respective units, means for driving the shaft from the cranks, a single valve actuating means for the valves of the several units, said valve actuating means moving in response to movement of the crank, means for adjusting the cam between the first and second plates,

and anti-friction bearings in the shaft and second plate, the anti-friction bearings also constituting thrust bearings for the cam.

3. A steam engine comprising a block, an uneven number of steam engine units in the block and arranged about a common center, a shaft in alignment with the common center, a plate longitudinally; spaced from the block and having a central bearing, through which the shaft projects, V-shaped guides carried by the plate, valve blocks connected to the valves of the respective units and guided in the Vshaped guide, rollers carried by the block, a single cam on the shaft in driving connection with the blocks through the rollers, and means for communicating motion to the shaft from the power elements of the several engine units.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

JOSEPH C. WILLIAMS.

Images