The present disclosure provides a sealing ring assembly having a sealing ring and a reinforcement, configured to seal a high-pressure region from a lower pressure region of a piston and cylinder device. The sealing ring may be segmented, and a metal layer, wire, or other reinforcement may be affixed to the ring. The reinforcement is placed into tension against the sealing ring, which is correspondingly placed into compression. The composite structure of a relatively brittle sealing ring and reinforcement provides for reduced tensile loads in the sealing ring, thus extending life and reducing the likelihood of failure. The brittle portion of the sealing ring assembly may include a polymer or ceramic such as graphite, which is relatively less strong in tension than compression.

A device for compressing a gaseous fluid includes a first chamber thermally coupled with a hot source, a second chamber thermally coupled with a cold source, a movable piston moved by a rod, and a regenerating exchanger establishing fluid communication between the first and second chambers. The rod is arranged in a cylindrical socket and guided in axial translation by a linear guiding system such as to guide the piston without contact relative to the sleeve. A sealing ring attached to the cylindrical socket surrounds the rod with a very low radial clearance, in order to limit the passage of the gaseous fluid along the mobile rod. Also disclosed is an integral cold casing having machined boreholes, a thermal screen in the hot casing, and a self-driving system with a resilient return means.

A closed cycle regenerative heat engine has a housing (12) defining a chamber (14). A displacer (18) is housed in the chamber. A shaft (24) is connected with the displacer and extends from the chamber. A power piston (30) is housed in the chamber. The displacer (18) is secured to the housing (12) and is resiliently deformable from a rest condition in response to movement of the shaft (24) to displace the working fluid in the chamber.

A near isothermal machine for compressing or expanding gas having a piston in a main cylinder with a heat absorbing and releasing structure attached thereto. The main cylinder contains a substantially constant volume of liquid maintained at a substantially constant temperature and a variable volume of gas, the gas temperature being controlled to substantially the same temperature as the liquid by the movement with the piston of the heat absorbing and releasing structure. A compensator is provided to compensate for variations in the level of liquid as the piston moves in the main cylinder.

A Stirling cycle machine with a liquid fuel/gaseous fuel burner. The burner may include a preheater to capture the thermal energy of the exhaust. The burner directs the preheated air to each burner head, where it enters a prechamber. Each burner head includes a fuel nozzle that directs liquid or gaseous fuel into the prechamber. The prechamber is fluidically connected to a combustion chamber via a prechamber nozzle that has a smaller opening than the prechamber. The burner head ignites the fuel air mixture in the prechamber with an ignitor located above or within the prechamber. The flame is initially lit as a diffusion flame in the prechamber. The flame is pushed out of the prechamber into the combustion chamber by an increased air flow rate. The liquid fuel from the nozzle now evaporates in the prechamber and forms a prevaporized flame in the combustion chamber.

A near adiabatic engine has four stages in a cycle: (1) a means of adiabatically expanding the working fluid during the downstroke from a high pressure/temperature level to a low level; (2) a means of cooling the working fluid at Bottom Dead Center (BDC); (3) a means of adiabatically compressing that fluid from a low pressure/temperature level at BDC to the higher level at Top Dead Center (TDC); and finally, (4) a means of passing that working fluid back to the high pressure/temperature source in a balanced pressure environment so as to minimize the resistance of that flow. This disclosure teaches the means of achieving (2) and (3) as follows: (2) a means is disclosed of BDC cooling of the expanded working fluid in the working chamber, and (3) a means is disclosed of adiabatically compressing the working fluid into the pump chamber before cycling the fluid.

Reciprocating heat engine with hot cylinder head and cold cylinder includes a cooled cylinder casing which receives a cold cylinder covered with a lubricant film and in which a piston connected to power transmission moves in translation to form a variable-volume hot chamber with a hot cylinder head which is held applied but free to expand on the cylinder casing by cylinder head applying unit, while a hot crown is interposed between the chamber and the piston and is held applied but free to expand on the piston by crown applying unit, the piston including a cooled piston sealing ring which has a piston sealing unit.

The present disclosure provides a sealing ring assembly having a sealing ring and a reinforcement, configured to seal a high-pressure region from a lower pressure region of a piston and cylinder device. The sealing ring may be segmented, and a metal layer, wire, or other reinforcement may be affixed to the ring. The reinforcement is placed into tension against the sealing ring, which is correspondingly placed into compression. The composite structure of a relatively brittle sealing ring and reinforcement provides for reduced tensile loads in the sealing ring, thus extending life and reducing the likelihood of failure. The brittle portion of the sealing ring assembly may include a polymer or ceramic such as graphite, which is relatively less strong in tension than compression.

An improvement to a free-piston Stirling machine having a cylinder mounted within a housing. The cylinder has a flange for mounting the cylinder within the housing to a transition plate with a central opening for receiving the cylinder. An elastic rim bounds and surrounds the opening and extends in an axial direction from the plate to a crest of the rim. The crest of the rim is in contact against a first axially facing side of the cylinder flange. The interior side of the rim is outwardly spaced from the exterior side of the cylinder. A compliant clamp is attached to the transition plate and is positioned on the opposite, axially facing side of the cylinder flange. The compliant clamp has an elastic spring extending against the cylinder flange which applies a force urging the cylinder flange in an axial direction against the crest of the elastic rim.

A device for compressing a gaseous fluid includes a first chamber thermally coupled with a hot source, a second chamber thermally coupled with a cold source, a movable piston moved by a rod, and a regenerating exchanger establishing fluid communication between the first and second chambers. The rod is arranged in a cylindrical socket and guided in axial translation by a linear guiding system such as to guide the piston without contact relative to the sleeve. A sealing ring attached to the cylindrical socket surrounds the rod with a very low radial clearance, in order to limit the passage of the gaseous fluid along the mobile rod. Also disclosed is an integral cold casing having machined boreholes, a thermal screen in the hot casing, and a self-driving system with a resilient return means.