This Stirling device patent covers the overall construction and drive mechanism of a compact Stirling cycle engine or heat pump.
The modern Stirling Engine is a clean running and efficient engine. This is because the heat fueling the device is supplied to the outer surface of a portion of the engine. Thus carbon contamination or other combustion contaminants can be eliminated in the engine because the combustion never enters the engine. Only heat enters the engine via the engines heat exchanger. The external combustion aspect enables a Stirling Engine to operate equally well on multiple types of fuel, such as natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel, bio-fuels, or even heat from the sun. Also, because a Stirling engine operates with a closed cycle, a pressurized Stirling can perform well at any atmospheric pressure or even in a vacuum.
Quiet operation of the Stirling Engine is one of the engine's most valuable features. Many Stirling engines are balanced by their nature, and since the fuel is burned slowly and constantly outside of the engine, there are no loud explosions so no muffler is required and there are no harsh vibrations.
A Stirling cycle is truly reversable, and many engines can be used as a heat pump when driven by a motor or another Stirling engine. This allows them to be used for refrigeration and even cryo-cooling using absolutely no CFCs.
My patented Stirling design has the following advantages over other currently available Stirling cycle devices:
1. Very compact, light weight and rigid drive mechanism that is easy to encapsulate for pressurization.
2. Easy to manufacture, low cost parts. No forgings of crankshafts or expensive gear components.
3. Very well thought out, practical, and cost effective coaxial layout construction. As Stirlings go, this one is very easy to assemble and work on if needed. It is assembled somewhat like a flashlight where the components can be installed or removed from a single end.
4. Infinitely setable phase angle, dwell, slope and stroke of pistons. This allows the engine to take the most advantage of the Stirling Cycle. No compromising for less than optimum phase angle or crank limited sinusoidal piston control.
5. Accommodating to any number of cylinders from 1 to however many you cluster around the coaxial drive cam. 6 seems like a practical maximum number of cylinders for this engine design however more could be employed. Most multi cylinder engines rely on a square four configuration which also limits them to a 90 degree phase angle between cylinders. I believe one of the greatest advantages with my design is not that you can go with more cylinders, but that you can go with fewer. Imagine a perfectly well balanced 2 or 3 cylinder engine in a solar application. Fewer cylinders can provide for a light weight, lower cost to manufacture Stirling engine. Also, this design would allow a line of engines to be manufactured using common cylinder and piston components in whatever cylinder number is needed for a desired power output. Again, a cost savings.
6. Rotary to linear motion from the cam mechanism eliminates any side load forces on the pistons.
7. Mechanically counter balanced from 2 cylinders up.
8. When used in a single cylinder configuration the design can employ a face cam or a barrel cam to control piston motion. The face cam also functions as a flywheel in the single cylinder configuration and can be counter balanced if needed.
9. Great potential for use as a prime mover or in a heat pump application. The prototypes have been tested for use as both engines and heat pumps.
