Rotating positive displacement engine

Abstract

An engine including a stationary housing; a cylinder bank rotatably mounted to the housing about a central longitudinal axis, the cylinder bank having a plurality of cylinders therein radially distanced from and parallel to the central longitudinal axis, each cylinder having a cylinder wall, an intake port, an exhaust port, a valve assembly governing the opening and closing of the intake port and the exhaust port, a piston moveable within the cylinder between an up position and a down position, and a connecting member having an inner end connected to the piston and an outer end; a torque plate operatively connected to the outer ends of the connecting members, the torque plate being rotatably mounted in a torque plane defined by the outer ends of the connecting members and which makes an oblique angle to a plane perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis, so that as the cylinder bank rotates the torque plate sequentially guides each piston from the up position to the down position during a first portion of a rotation of the cylinder bank and then sequentially guides each piston from the down position to the up position during a second portion of the rotation of the cylinder bank; and a synchronizing member operatively connected to the cylinder bank and the torque plate so that the cylinder bank and torque plate rotate at the same speed.