Thomas Industries, Inc.

Other

William Harry Lynn

Paul J Thomas

Ross P Christiansen

Shawn Alan Leu

Larry H Panzer

Richard C Fuksa

Jeffrey W Bergner

Gerald A Armfield

Roy Razek

Gregg E Meschler

A nutating pump for creating pressure or a vacuum. The nutating pump includes a housing with a center support positioned within said housing. The center support includes a semi-spherical recess. The pump also includes a drive shaft adapted to be connected to an electric motor and an eccentric adapted to be connected to the drive shaft. The pump further includes a ball adapted to form a ball joint and is adapted to be positioned within the semi-spherical recess of said center support. In addition the pump includes a nutating yoke positioned within the housing. The yoke includes a semi-spherical recess adapted to accept said pivot ball. The nutating yoke is adapted to be connected to the eccentric, such that rotation of the eccentric causes the yoke to move about the ball. The pump also includes a connecting rod connected to the yoke, a piston connected to the connecting rod and a cylinder adapted to accept the piston, wherein the movement of the yoke about the ball causes the piston to reciprocate within the cylinder.

Hybrid nutating pump

A nutating pump has a cross-type universal joint connecting a nutating member to a pump housing, ball joints connecting the nutating member to piston rods, and the piston rods fixed to piston heads so that the piston heads wobble in pump cylinders.

A piston pump or compressor has a dynamically balanced drive assembly in which nearly all of the rotational, oscillatory and axial forces on the rotating drive shaft are canceled. The piston is primarily balanced by adding an oscillating counter weight mounted to the connecting rod to convert oscillatory forces into rotational forces at the axis of an eccentric element mounting the piston to the drive shaft. The remaining unbalanced rotational forces are centered along the drive shaft by a rotating counter weight. A further counter weight is mounted to the drive shaft spaced along the drive shaft from the rotating counter weight to impart a counter moment on the drive shaft and essentially cancel the moment about a moment axis perpendicular to the drive shaft resulting from the axial spacing of the piston and the other two counter weights. A method of reducing vibration on a piston drive shaft is also disclosed.

Piston balancing system

An oxygen concentrator is controlled during start-up to rapidly shuttle the sieve beds between communication with the pump and atmospheric pressure, so the pressure in the sieve beds is relieved while the pump motor is starting up. After the start-up period, the sieve beds are alternately connected to the pump and atmospheric pressure for longer continuous periods.

Motor start-up unloading in an oxygen concentrator

A pump has wobble pistons rigidly connected to arms of a nutating plate that is mounted on a bearing eccentrically mounted to a drive shaft by a counterweight. The piston assembly is nearly perfectly balanced by the counterweight due to its precisely defined moment of inertia and mass components. In particular, the counterweight produces a counter moment equal to the average moment produced by the piston assembly, preferably with a mass moment of inertia component corresponding to the average mass moment of inertia of the piston assembly. It also has a mass component providing a counter balance force opposing a radial force arising from the piston assembly having a center of gravity spaced from the shaft axis, and it has a mass component providing a counter balance moment opposing the moment arising from the counter balance force and the center of gravity of the piston assembly being spaced apart axially.

Fluid pumping apparatus

An axial piston fluid pumping apparatus is disclosed in which wobble pistons are rigidly connected to arms of a nutating plate that is rotatably mounted on a bearing which is mounted on a drive shaft. The axis of the bearing is at an acute angle to the axis of the shaft. The wobble pistons move within cylinders whose bores are disposed about the axis of the shaft. In one embodiment, the pistons are supported by leaf springs and radially resilient connecting rods and the crankcase is enclosed.

An axial piston fluid pumping apparatus is disclosed in which wobble pistons are rigidly connected to arms of a nutating plate that is rotatably mounted on a bearing which is mounted on a drive shaft. The axis of the bearing is at an acute angle to the axis of the shaft. The wobble pistons move within cylinders whose bores are disposed about the axis of the shaft. The motion of the pistons is in three dimensions within the bores.

A two-cylinder air compressor has a motor with a through drive shaft. Identical housings are provided at each end of a cylindrical spacer sleeve that surrounds the motor. The housings include cylinder housing extensions each of which mounts a cylinder sleeve, a valve plate, and a head. The heads are part of a one-piece cylinder head member. Wobble pistons are mounted on each end of the motor shaft and operate in the cylinder sleeves. The cylinder sleeves rest on a floor in the housing which has integrally formed passages for cooling air to circulate around the cylinder sleeves. The one-piece cylinder head member includes integral tubes connecting the heads. The integral tubes span the distance between the heads and are spaced from the outside of the spacer. The housings may be joined by through bolts or without bolts by press fitting the bearings in the housing, press fitting the housings to the spacer sleeve, and press fitting the motor shaft into the bearings. The one-piece cylinder head serves as the final retention member, clamping the housings axially while maintaining radial orientation.

Two-cylinder air compressor

A cylinder sleeve is composed of multiple identical interlocking sleeve elements. Each sleeve element has a circular cylindrical portion and an integral circular arc portion tangent to the cylindrical portion. The circular arc portion has a boss on one end and an offset finger on the other which mates with the boss of an adjacent sleeve element to fix the adjacent sleeve elements together radially.

Cylinder sleeve assembly

A fluid pumping apparatus is disclosed in which wobble pistons are rigidly connected to arms of a swashplate that is rotatably mounted on bearings which are mounted on a drive shaft. The axis of the bearings is at an acute angle to the axis of the shaft. The wobble pistons move within cylinders whose bores are parallel to the axis of the shaft. Two or more pistons and cylinders are arranged symmetrically about the shaft axis, and cylinder-piston combinations are mounted at opposite ends of a through shaft.

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Kohler, WI, United States of America

William Harry Lynn