Denso Corporation

Tohoku University

Tocalo Co., Ltd.

Yasunori Niiyama

Shinichi Yatsuzuka

Shuzo Oda

Takashi Kaneko

Katsuya Komaki

Tsuyoshi Morimoto

Yasumasa Hagiwara

Naoki Watanabe

Takayuki Sugiura

Koshi Adachi

Shigeo Nomura

Tomoyuki Nomura

Shinya Miki

Mamoru Shimoda

Shunji Okemoto

Akito Torii

Kentaro Kishi

Kentarou Fukuda

A sliding member includes: a base material; a solid lubricant layer arranged on a surface of the base material; a defect layer having a material defect, disposed in the solid lubricant layer, and being changeable into an ultra low friction layer by mechanical stress more easily than changing from the solid lubricant layer to the ultra low friction layer; and a ultra low friction layer covering a surface of the defect layer.

Sliding member and method for manufacturing the same

A controller is configured to, based on a characteristic information of thermal output with respect to a temperature difference between a hot end and a cold end of a working chamber, changes at least one of a flow rate of a heating target fluid in a high temperature heat exchanger and a flow rate of a cooling target fluid in a low temperature heat exchanger. At least one of the flow rate of the heating target fluid in the high temperature heat exchanger and the flow rate of the cooling target fluid in the low temperature heat exchanger is adjusted such that the temperature difference between the hot and cold ends changes in a direction that increases thermal output.

Magnetic heat pump device

A heat engine includes a container in which a liquid piston made of a liquid operation fluid is sealed to flow therein, an exterior evaporator located outside of the container to generate vapor of the operation fluid, a suction portion arranged at one end side of the container to draw the vapor generated in the exterior evaporator into the container, an expansion portion in which the vapor drawn into the container is expanded to cause a displacement of the liquid piston, an output portion arranged at the other end side of the container to convert the displacement of the liquid piston to a mechanical energy, a liquid piston discharge portion for discharging a part of the liquid operation fluid as the liquid piston from the container, and a vapor discharge portion configured to discharge the vapor without being condensed in the container to outside of the container.

Heat engine

An external combustion engine provided with a pipe-shaped main container with a heating portion and a cooling portion, an output part converting displacement of the liquid part of said working fluid generated due to the change in volume of said working fluid accompanying generation and condensation of said steam to mechanical energy for output, a venturi provided at a communicating part of the main container and an auxiliary container, a communicating member forming a communicating passage bypassing the venturi and communicating the main container and the auxiliary container, and a shutting means for closing the communicating passage at the time of normal operation and opening the communicating passage at the time of startup, wherein at the time of startup, the pressure loss at the communicating passage becomes smaller than a saturated steam pressure at the temperature of the heating portion.

External combustion engine

An external combustion engine comprising a pipe-shaped main container in which a working fluid is sealed flowably in a liquid state, a heated part formed at a location of one end of the main container and heating part of the working fluid in the main container in order to make it evaporate, a cooled part formed at a location next to the heated part toward the other end of the main container and cooling the vapor of the working fluid evaporated at the heated part in order to make it condense, an output unit communicated with the other end of the main container and converting the displacement of the liquid phase part of the working fluid to mechanical energy for output, and a controller alternately performing a heat storage mode making displacement of the liquid phase part of the working fluid stop in order to make the heated part store heat and an output mode allowing displacement of the liquid phase part of the working fluid and taking output from the output unit.

An external combustion engine alternately repeating a first stroke of making a working fluid evaporate at a plurality of heating portions and making a liquid phase part of the working fluid displace toward an output part side and a second stroke of making the working fluid evaporated at the first stroke condense at the plurality of cooling portions and making the liquid phase part of the working fluid displace toward the side of the plurality of the heating portions and provided with inflow adjusting means for reducing differences in inflows among the plurality of the heating portions, wherein the inflow is defined as the amount of a liquid phase part of the working fluid flowing into the heating portions when the liquid phase part of the working fluid displaces from the output part side to the side of the plurality of the heating portions in the second stroke.

In a steam engine having multiple main containers, first and second communication pipes are arranged in parallel to each other for respectively communication an auxiliary container with the main containers. Restricted portions and a first switching device are formed in the first communication pipe. The first communication pipe is closed during a start-up step of a starting operation of the engine, in order to prevent that an excess amount of working fluid may flow back from the auxiliary container to the main containers. As a result, a start-up time can be reduced.

An external combustion engineis disclosed, wherein a containersealed with a working medium adapted to flow in a liquid state includes a heating unitfor generating a vapor of the working mediumby heating part of the working medium, and a cooling unitfor liquefying by cooling the vapor. The volume of the working mediumis changed by the generation and liquefaction of the vapor, and the displacement of the liquid portion of the working mediumcaused by the volume change of the working mediumis converted into and output as mechanical energy. The heating unitis structured so that inner membersarranged on the inside and outer membersarranged on the outside are bonded to each other. The outer membersare made of a second material higher in heat resistance than the first material of the inner members. Further, the thickness of the inner membersis not smaller than the thermal penetration depth &#x3b4; of the first material.

An external combustion engine includes: a main container sealed with a working fluid in a liquid state adapted to flow; a heater for heating a portion of the working fluid in the main container and generating the vapor of the working fluid; a cooler for cooling and liquefying the vapor; an output unit for outputting by converting the displacement of the liquid portion of the working fluid generated by the volume change of the working fluid due to the generation and liquefaction of the vapor into mechanical energy; and an auxiliary container communicating with the main container. The heater, the cooler and the output unit are arranged in order, in the direction of displacement of the working fluid. The working fluid is sealed in the auxiliary container which communicates with the portion of the main container nearer the output unit than the cooler. The engine further includes a communication area adjusting unit for establishing communication between the main container and the auxiliary container with a first communication area in normal operation mode and with a second communication area larger than the first communication area at the time of engine start. Thus, a predetermined output is produced quickly after engine start.

An external combustion engine provided with a plurality of evaporators and stabilized in output and efficiency, that is, an engine provided with at least one main container, a plurality of evaporators heating the working medium to evaporate, condensers cooling the vapor of the working medium evaporated at the evaporators to make it condense, an output part communicated with the other end of the main container and converting displacement of a liquid part of the working medium occurring due to fluctuations in volume of the working medium accompanying evaporation and condensation of the working medium to mechanical energy for output, a single main container pressure adjusting means adjusting an internal pressure of the main container, and controlling means for controlling the main container pressure adjusting means based on a lowest temperature in the temperatures of the plurality of evaporators constituting a minimum evaporator temperature.

An external combustion engine including a containersealed with a working mediumin liquid phase adapted to flow, a multiplicity of evaporatorstofor heating and evaporating part of the liquid-phase working medium, a multiplicity of condenserstofor cooling and condensing the working mediumevaporated in the evaporatorsto, and an output unitfor outputting by converting the displacement of the liquid-phase portion of the working mediuminto mechanical energy. The multiplicity of the evaporatorstoshare a heat source from which heat is supplied thereto. The engine further includes an influent liquid amount regulation unit whereby the liquid-phase portion of the working mediumin a greater amount flows into the evaporators nearer the heat source upon displacement of the liquid-phase portion of the working mediumtoward the multiplicity of the evaporatorstofrom the output unit, while the influent liquid amount is smaller for the evaporators farther from the heat source. In this way, heat loss is reduced resulting in improved efficiency.

An external combustion engine formed with a plurality of heaters for improving output, provided with a container in which a working medium is sealed flowable in a liquid state, the container being formed with heaters for heating part of a working medium to generate vapor of the working medium and coolers for cooling the vapor to liquefy, the generation and liquefaction of the vapor causing the working medium to change in volume and the displacement of the liquid part of the working medium caused by the change in volume of the working medium being converted to mechanical energy for output, wherein at least the parts of the container connected with the heaters being branched into pluralities of tubular parts, a plurality of heaters are formed so as to be connected with the plurality of tubular parts, a plurality of vapor reservoirs for storing the vapor of the working medium are formed so as to be connected with the plurality of heaters, and the plurality of vapor reservoirs are connected with each other.

A free piston engine has a pair of pistons opposing to each other and movable in a cylinder, to form a combustion chamber between the pistons. A mixed gas of air and fuel is supplied into the combustion chamber and the mixed gas is auto-ignited when it is compressed by the pistons. A temperature and/or an air-fuel ratio of the mixed gas, and/or a pressure in the combustion chamber is detected to control displacements of the pistons, so that the mixed gas is auto-ignited at an optimum timing to efficiently operate the free piston engine.

Growing community of inventors

Kuwana, Japan

Yasunori Niiyama