Abstract: A compact free piston engine of the unsymmetrical type including a structure with a cylinder detachably supported therein, said cylinder having a pair of pistons with a combustion chamber therebetween and each piston having a rod extending through the adjacent end of the cylinder and having motion reversing means at one end of said cylinder and extending between said rods. Preferably, the structure is of strong but lightweight construction. It may have a skeleton type of housing with bolt type columns spaced around the cylinder. Portions of the reversing means lie along the side of the cylinder while another major portion thereof lies beyond one end of the cylinder. An energy absorbing device or devices may be connected to one only or to each of the rods, and each rod will be driven simultaneously in an opposite direction to the other by both pistons.

Abstract: An unsymmetrical and balanced free piston engine of economical construction in which the engine cylinder requires no liner. A housing surrounding the cylinder is opened for cylinder machining and is adapted for space-saving vertical mounting. It has an open-sided base portion through which an engine piston may be installed and removed for servicing, which lowers the initial cost of manufacturing and the later cost of maintenance, as compared with earlier engines of the same engine type.

Abstract: This invention is a multi-stage compressor embodying a stepped piston in a stepped cylinder and connected through a coaxial rod to the piston of an engine. Control means in a passageway or a conduit extending from the second or third stage discharge of the compressor or any other source of pressure to a single bounce chamber, responds to pressure in the bounce chamber to increase or reduce gas pressure in the chamber, to balance the energy and work quantities acting in opposite directions to provide optimimum operation of the compressor at varying pressures.

Abstract: A bellows seal apparatus for use in compressors or the like which has pump means arranged and controlled to maintain a desired pressure differential between the inside and outside surfaces of the bellows. It also has a driving mechanism having a connection with a movable end of the bellows and an additional connection or connections with said bellows at unequally spaced points intermediate to the ends of the bellows to provide the least maximum stress levels in the bellows convolutions of each and thus the maximum life expectancy for the seal. The driving mechanism may take many forms but is so designed that it will elongate and contract each section of the bellows a distance depending upon the dynamically caused stresses in each section and the composition of and the number of bellows convolutions in each section.

Abstract: A hermetic seal, primarily for compressors for use in refrigeration or air conditioning systems but having use in apparatus wherein a seal is required between two elements reciprocating substantial distances relative to each other, comprising a bellows having a plurality of sections of convolutions with positive displacement means associated therewith that assures simultaneous movement of most of the convolutions upon rapid acceleration of relative movement between the two elements. This prevents excess stress and strain on any one or more convolutions, or on the end convolutions in particular, that could cause failure thereof by distributing the stress over a large number of the convolutions rather than just a few at any one instant. The stress in each convolution of the bellows depends upon the natural frequency and spring rates of any given bellows diameter and number of convolutions.

Abstract: A linear type of compressor wherein a housing section, for enclosing a crankshaft and pinions of a counterbalancing synchronizer, has axially extending support means for the pinions formed integrally therewith through an inner flange also integral with the housing section, so that the holes for the pinion shafts may be formed in the support means when the hole in the housing for the crankshaft is formed. This assures the making of all of the holes exactly parallel and avoids time-consuming assembly work, experienced in prior art compressor manufacturing, when the housing sections are put together. By providing a large opening through the upper portion of the support means or through the bottom of the housing an axial bore may be made to receive a piston type of crosshead.

Abstract: A compact fluid compressor embodying a housing formed of a plurality of stacked sections with relatively large fluid flow passageways cast therein and wherein the overall outline of the compressor's housing is substantially rectangular. This arrangement eliminates numerous external piping and the connections needed therefor, found in prior art compressors, and provides a lightweight and good appearing compressor as well as a highly efficient one. The small size, considering the horse power thereof, is due in part to the utilization therein of the Braun mechanism, a counterbalancing and anti-vibration drive mechanism between the power means and the compressor piston or pistons, which mechanism is fully disclosed in Braun U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,222. Even in the two-stage embodiment of the compressor, an inter-cooler, an after-cooler and an inlet fluid (air) filter lie within the above-mentioned outline.

Abstract: A two-cycle free piston engine which is adapted to burn various types of fuel but is particularly adapted to burn gaseous fuel. It introduces the fuel through at least one hole in the side wall of at least one cylinder at a location inwardly of the cylinder air intake and exhaust ports so as to be closed by the power piston at a time or position before the compression pressure in the power cylinder is equal to the injection pressure and also not before the valving system has interrupted the fuel flow. This advantageously keeps the fuel admission controls out of the hottest portion of the cylinder's combustion chamber, gives safer and better mixing of fuel and air and prevents blow back of fuel in the fuel supply line.The fuel admission is preferably started shortly before or after the air intake port is closed, but before the exhaust port is closed and not earlier than is sufficient to prevent the first fuel particles entering the cylinder from escaping through the exhaust port.

Abstract: A machine drive mechanism between a power unit and an energy absorbing unit, such as a compressor unit. The power unit may be connected to a crosshead carrying a pair of spaced and inwardly facing racks or to a double rack member and the compressor unit may be connected to one end of a piston-like guide and seal member which, in turn, is pivotally connected to one end of the double rack or the pair of spaced racks. The double rack extends between a pair of pinion gears mounted on fixed shafts and operably engaging the spaced racks and the double rack. When the power unit is directly connected to the energy absorbing device, the spaced racks merely serve as counterbalancing means. The power unit may also be connected by a relatively long unpivoted shaft to the energy absorbing unit either directly or through the racks by a connection providing transverse flexing movement between the double rack and the shaft.

Abstract: Apparatus for mixing fluids at a fixed ratio. It includes a large tank for the mixture, a storage tank for an additive fluid and preferably, an intermediate tank having a volume at least equal to the amount needed to provide the desired ratio when the large tank is completely filled with the larger volume of fluid and the additive from the intermediate tank. A stand pipe in the large tank and pipes and valves between the tanks are arranged to enable the introduction of the main fluid into the large tank, through a fill valve, to simultaneously displace a proportional amount of additive fluid into the large tank by the action of the main fluid rising in the stand pipe. An interlock arrangement between the fill valve and the other valves assures proper refilling of the large tank with the correct mixture.

Abstract: A seal between compression chambers of a compressor which preferably embodies a relatively long sleeve having an inside diameter only slightly larger than the diameter of a piston rod that extends between and in to the compression chambers. The sleeve is floatingly supported in and sealed against the housing of the compressor so as to enable it to adjust itself to always remain substantially concentric with respect to the rod without assuming appreciable bearing forces. Preferably the inner surface of the sleeve has a good bearing material on or imbedded in at least two end portions of the sleeve.The seal may also take the form of a long bore in a wall between areas of different gas pressures for preventing substantial leaking of gas lengthwise thereof between the wall of the bore and a movable rod, of slightly smaller diameter, which extends therethrough.

Abstract: A liquid atomizing nozzle for injecting atomized fuel or water or fuel and water into an internal combustion engine or into a boiler. The nozzle has at least one passage for air and one region where turbulence of air is established and at least one passage with an exit for directing liquid fuel into said region for combustion. The nozzle also may include at least one passage with an exit for directing water into said region. Where there are more than one combustion regions in said engine or boiler, there will be more than one set of passages, turbulence regions and exits, with each second exit directed into a separate combustion region or into a common manifold in the direction of a separate intake of a separate combustion region.

Abstract: A machine, such as the compressor, having a housing formed in two sections. One section encloses a working unit while the second section encloses a driving unit for operating the working unit. A connector unit in the second section is operably connected by removable bearing means to the working unit and to the driving unit. The connector unit has pivoted bearings thereon that are slidable on mating removable bearings on the housing. A window is provided in the second section, through which window all of the bearing means in the second section may be removed without disturbing the working unit in its section. The pivoted bearings are of the so called Mitchell type but are of an improved construction. The bearing surfaces thereof have one or more transverse grooves therein that are symetrically arranged with respect to a plane passing through the pivot bore and perpendicular to the bearing's face. This construction tends to prevent digging in of the bearing when moving along the mating bearing.