| 摘要 |
In an axial-piston engine of the type known as a "wabbler" engine, in which the motion of the pistons is transferred to a straight main shaft by means of a non-rotating element (referred to as the "wabbler") which nutates as the shaft rotates and transfers the motion to the pistons via arms at its periphery, a design of the wabbler in which the wabbler is made in two or more parts so as to enclose a swashplate on the shaft, with thrust bearings between the wabbler and the swashplate (which latter is fixed to the shaft). The parts of the wabbler are rigidly connected together, so as to maximise the bending strength of the assembly in resisting the thrust loads from the pistons, and to facilitate the transfer of the loads to the bearing surfaces so as to avoid excessive localized loading of the bearings. To this end, the mating surfaces between the parts of the wabbler have features such as serrating or grooving which by interlocking action enhance the transfer of shear forces, such that the bending strength which would have existed had the wabbler been all in one piece is retained to the greatest possible degree. In this design, the body of the wabbler essentially consists of a short "cylinder" with heavy annular end plates; the spacing-apart of these ends provides a superior means of reacting the cantilever beam loads from the arms and of distributing these loads over the bearing surfaces.
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