A thrust bearing assembly is provided for the pistons of a hydrostatic drive motor. The thrust bearing assembly includes first and second retainer components removably interconnected to form a retainer assembly, a thrust bearing captured between and encompassed by the first and second retainer components, and locking tangs extending outward from the first and second retainer components. Corresponding catches are formed on the internal surface of the housing to engage the locking tangs when the thrust bearing assembly is installed in the housing.

An opposed piston engine has a driveshaft with at least one combustion cylinder positioned between opposing, curvilinear shaped cams mounted on the driveshaft, where the center axis of the combustion cylinder is parallel with but spaced apart from the driveshaft axis. A piston assembly is disposed in each end of the cylinder, with one piston assembly engaging one cam and the other piston assembly engaging the other cam. Each piston assembly includes a cam follower that can move along a curvilinear shaped cam to reciprocate the piston assembly within the cylinder. The combustion cylinder includes an intake port in fluid communication with an annular intake channel formed in the engine block in which the cylinder is mounted, and an exhaust port in fluid communication with an annular exhaust channel formed in the engine block.

An axial piston machine may include a rotor having a shaft rotatably mounted in a housing. A plurality of cylinders may be arranged annularly around the rotor. A plurality of pistons may each be disposed within each of the plurality of cylinders and may be constructed and arranged to selectively translate within each of the plurality of cylinders. Each of the plurality of cylinders may be disposed within a cylinder head and may be in operative communication with an inlet opening defined in the cylinder head and at least one outlet opening defined in the housing. An auxiliary outlet rotary slide valve may be operatively connected to the shaft in a rotationally fixed manner. The auxiliary outlet rotary slide valve may comprises an auxiliary outlet rotary opening constructed and arranged to connect to a vent duct of one of the plurality of cylinders based on an angle of rotation, and may vent the one of the plurality of cylinders. At least a portion of the auxiliary outlet rotary slide valve may comprise a material constructed and arranged to reduce a sliding friction resistance, and wherein the material comprises one of a carbon containing material or a polymer containing material.

An opposed piston engine has a driveshaft with a first combustion cylinder parallel with a driveshaft and disposed about the driveshaft at a first radius and a second combustion cylinder parallel with the driveshaft and disposed about the driveshaft at a second radius greater than the first radius. A first pair of curvilinear shaped cams are associated with the first combustion cylinder and disposed on the driveshaft and a second pair of curvilinear shaped cams are associated with the second combustion cylinder and disposed on the driveshaft outwardly of the first pair of cams.

A hydraulic system includes a piston, a swash plate opposed to the piston, and a swash plate supporting member supporting the swash plate so that a tilt of the swash plate is variable. An oil reservoir portion is provided between the swash plate and the swash plate supporting member, the oil reservoir portion communicating with a pressure oil introducing passage. An area of the oil reservoir portion between the swash plate and the swash plate supporting member varies with the tilt of the swash plate.

Devices and methods for improving the efficiency of an axial piston hydraulic motor or other axial piston hydraulic device. In some embodiments, a valve cam, with specified geometry, is assembled to a conventional axial piston hydraulic device (e.g., hydraulic motor, hydraulic pump, hydraulic pump-motor) in a manner permitting selective rotation of the valve cam relative to the distributor valves (e.g., spool valves). The rotating valve cam facilitates variable piston stroke and can be provided in conjunction with (e.g., joint control) an adjustable swashplate according to a mathematical relationship in order to adjust the displacement of the axial piston hydraulic motor (or other device) while maintaining optimal pre-compression and decompression across a range of operating conditions. This configuration allows, for each desired effective displacement of the hydraulic motor, a set of optimal valve timing to achieve perfect pre-compression and decompression so as to eliminate associated throttling losses.

An opposed piston engine has a driveshaft with a spaced apart cams mounted thereon. Each cam has a circumferential cam shoulder of a curvilinear shape selected to enhance flow through intake and exhaust ports. The curvilinear shape may be a segmented polynomial shape forming lobes which lobes are asymmetrical so that the lobe wavelength distance from a first trough to the lobe peak of an ascending shoulder portion of the lobe is greater than the lobe wavelength distance from the peak to a second trough of a descending shoulder portion of the lobe. Opposing cam shoulders may be shaped so as to always be converging or diverging from one another.

An opposed piston engine has a driveshaft with at least two combustion cylinders serially aligned along a center cylinder axis so as to be coaxial, where the center cylinder axis is parallel with but spaced apart from the driveshaft axis. A cam is disposed between adjacent combustion cylinders, as well as adjacent the outermost end of each combustion cylinder in order to reciprocatingly drive piston pairs disposed in each combustion cylinder.

A hydrostatic axial piston machine includes a housing, a cylinder barrel, and a drive shaft, which are connected together and mounted in the housing so as to rotate jointly about a first axis. The machine also includes a swash plate mounted in the housing so as to pivot about a second axis to adjust a swept volume of the machine. The machine further includes a hydraulic actuating apparatus, which has an actuating piston that delimits an actuating chamber. The machine also includes a regulating valve attached to a flange face of the housing. The regulating valve has connections situated in the flange face that are used to communicate hydraulic fluid to and from the actuating chamber. The flange face is arranged obliquely so as to enclose an angle with the second axis that is greater than 0 and smaller than 90.

A cylinder block includes: a plurality of cylinder bores including respective openings formed on a piston insertion end surface of the cylinder block, pistons being inserted in the respective cylinder bores and being configured to reciprocate and slide in the respective cylinder bores when the cylinder block rotates; and a cooling portion, wherein the cooling portion includes a plurality of cooling holes each formed between the adjacent cylinder bores and extending from the piston insertion end surface in an axial direction of the cylinder block.