| 摘要 |
A reciprocating engine has a plurality of cylinders, each with a piston that travels between top dead center and bottom dead center. A pair of parallel counter-rotating cranks are joined by respective connecting rods to piston rod that passes through the plane defined by the axes of the cranks. This construction permits the rotary motion of the cranks to exceed 180 DEG during either the compression or the power stroke of the piston and to be correspondingly less than 180 DEG for the other. To avoid having bending or buckling forces applied to the connecting rods, the piston rod is sufficiently long that the couplings of the piston rod and the connecting rods remain disposed to the side of the plane of the cranks that is remote from the piston for all travel of the piston between top dead center and bottom dead center positions. The mechanical advantage as between power and compression strokes can exceed 2:1, yielding a favorable mechanical advantage for the expanding combustion gas in the cylinder chamber. The dwell at top dead center can be minimized to achieve high torque at low engine speed. A counterbalance system comprises one or more counterweights for each piston, the counterweights being constrained to linear travel parallel to the piston travel. Each counterweight has a connecting rod journalled to one of the crank arms for the associated piston. The reciprocating motion of the counterweights is substantially opposite to the motion of one or more of the other pistons.
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