RECIRCULATING GRADIENT POWER SYSTEM
20190154009 ยท 2019-05-23
Inventors
Cpc classification
F03G3/00
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
F15B15/06
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
F03G7/104
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
F05B2260/403
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
F15B15/1409
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
International classification
F03G3/00
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
F15B15/06
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
F15B15/14
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
Abstract
A recirculating gradient power system includes a motion carrier, a counterweight, power cylinders and a control module. A central vertical axis of the motion carrier has a rotating shaft pivotally connected with the counterweight. The power cylinders connected with a pressure source are evenly arranged at diagonal corners around the periphery of the central vertical axis. The control module connected with the power cylinders controls operation of the power cylinders which are set in advance when the counterweight is rotationally displaced to a predetermined stroke. The pressure source sequentially provides compressed gas fluid to the power cylinders to make the motion carrier continuously change its tilt orientation and tilt angle, thus forming a virtual continuous gradient. The counterweight is rotationally displaced from a high point of the motion carrier toward a lower point of the motion carrier about the rotating shaft by gravity, and the rotating shaft rotates continuously.
Claims
1. A recirculating gradient power system, comprising: a motion carrier, horizontally arranged, having a central vertical axis as a pivot to change its tilt orientation and tilt angle, the motion carrier being provided with a track being annularly disposed on the motion carrier; a rotating shaft, vertically disposed at the position of the central vertical axis of the motion carrier; a counterweight, pivotally connected to the rotating shaft through a coupling mechanism, the counterweight being rotationally displaced from a high point of the motion carrier toward a lower point of the motion carrier about the rotating shaft by gravity to rotate the rotating shaft synchronously, the counterweight being provided with at least one roller in contact with the track to roll on the track, two ends of the coupling mechanism being pivotally connected to the rotating shaft and the counterweight respectively, and the counterweight being disposed at a position where the center of mass of the counterweight is located at an outer side of the motion carrier; a plurality of power cylinders, evenly arranged at diagonal corners around the periphery of the central vertical axis of the motion carrier, each of the power cylinders being provided with a push rod connected with a pressure source to drive the motion carrier to change the tilt orientation and the tilt angle, the pressure source being a fluid accumulator unit; a control module, being provided with a plurality of valve elements connected with the power cylinders, and two ends of each the valve elements being respectively connected with the pressure source and the corresponding power cylinder via pipes, respectively, wherein when the counterweight is rotationally displaced to a predetermined stroke, the control module controls the valve elements to be turned on/off to selectively make the power cylinders be communicated with the pressure source, so as to control the operation of the power cylinders which are set in advance; wherein a surface of the track which contacts the roller is provided with a wear-resistant structure, and the wear-resistant structure is formed of a wear-resistant material, or formed by polishing the surface of the track.
2. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the counterweight is disposed at a position where the center of mass of the counterweight is located at an outer side of the track.
3. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 2, wherein a cross section of the track is a T-shaped structure, wherein the roller contacts a top portion of the T-shaped structure, and a bottom portion of the T-shaped structure is connected with the motion carrier.
4. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the counterweight is provided with at least two auxiliary rollers respectively corresponding to two sides of the track
5. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the coupling mechanism is provided with a pivot member fixed to the counterweight, one end of the pivot member is formed with two arms corresponding to two sides of the rotating shaft, and a pin is provided to penetrate the two arms and the rotating shaft.
6. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the coupling mechanism is provided with a first connecting member fixed to the counterweight, a second connecting member is mounted on the first connecting member and is telescopic relative to the first connecting member, one end of the second connecting member is provided with a pivot member, one end of the pivot member is formed with two arms corresponding to two sides of the rotating shaft, and a pin is provided to penetrate the two arms and the rotating shaft.
7. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the roller has an arc surface; the first connecting member is provided with two first stoppers thereon, at least one guide post is provided between the two first stoppers; the second connecting member is provided with a first sliding seat inserted between the two first stoppers, and the first sliding seat is provided with at least one guide hole for the guide post of the first connecting member to insert therethrough.
8. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the roller has an arc surface; the first connecting member is provided with a slide rail thereon, a tail end of the first connecting member is provided with a second stopper; the second connecting member is provided with a second sliding seat, and the second sliding seat is provided with at least one chute corresponding to the slide rail of the first connecting member.
9. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the roller has an arc surface; the first connecting member is provided with a guide post; the second connecting member is provided with a guide hole for the guide post of the first connecting member to insert therethrough.
10. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a base, the power cylinders being fixed to the base, the rotating shaft being pivotally disposed on the base, the motion carrier being mounted on the base through a universal coupling seat.
11. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising at least one generator to constitute a transmission coupling in cooperation with the rotating shaft.
12. The recirculating gradient power system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control module is provided with a plurality of contact sensing elements corresponding to the rotating shaft, respectively, or a plurality of non-contact sensing elements corresponding to the rotating shaft, respectively.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0020]
[0021]
[0022]
[0023]
[0024]
[0025]
[0026]
[0027]
[0028]
[0029]
[0030]
[0031]
[0032]
[0033]
[0034]
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0035] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0036] The present invention mainly provides a recirculating gradient power system. As shown in
[0037] The motion carrier 10 is horizontally arranged and has a central vertical axis as a pivot to change its tilt orientation and tilt angle. In an embodiment, the motion carrier 10 may be a mechanical structure formed of a metal, a wood, plastics or a foam material by processing.
[0038] The rotating shaft 20 is vertically disposed at the position of the central vertical axis of the motion carrier 10.
[0039] The counterweight 30 is pivotally connected to the rotating shaft 20 through a coupling mechanism 90, and is rotationally displaced from the high point of the motion carrier 10 toward the lower point of the motion carrier 10 about the rotating shaft 20 by gravity to rotate the rotating shaft 20 synchronously. In an embodiment, the counterweight 30 is rotated through at least one roller 31 in contact with the motion carrier to roll on the motion carrier 10. In the present invention, the coupling mechanism 90 is used to connect the counterweight 30 and the rotating shaft 20. The coupling mechanism 90 may include an elbow member 91. Two ends of the elbow member 91 are pivotally connected to the rotating shaft 20 and the counterweight 30, respectively, i.e., the two ends of the elbow member 91 are respectively oscillated by the rotating shaft 20 and the counterweight 30, so that the roller 31 of the counterweight 30 can be kept in contact with the motion carrier 10 when the motion carrier 10 is tilted and oscillated.
[0040] As an example, the power cylinders 40 in the present invention can comprise at least four power cylinders. The at least four power cylinders 40 are evenly arranged at four diagonal corners around the periphery of the central vertical axis of the motion carrier 10. In this embodiment, the recirculating gradient power system of the present invention comprises four power cylinders 40 located at four diagonal corners in the horizontal transverse direction and in the horizontal longitudinal direction around the periphery of the central vertical axis of the motion carrier 10, i.e., four diagonal corners at the front side, the rear side, the left side and the right side as shown in the drawings. Each of the power cylinders 40 is provided with a push rod 41 connected with a pressure source to drive the motion carrier 10 to change its tilt orientation and tilt angle.
[0041] The control module 50 is connected with the power cylinders 40 for controlling the operation of the power cylinders 40 which are set in advance when the counterweight 30 is rotationally displaced to a predetermined stroke. In an embodiment, the control module 50 may be provided with a plurality of valve elements 51 connected with the power cylinders 40 and a plurality of contact sensing elements 52 corresponding to the rotating shaft 20, respectively, or a plurality of non-contact sensing elements (not shown) corresponding to the rotating shaft 20, respectively. The contact sensing elements 52 or the non-contact sensing elements (not shown) are adapted to sense the displacement of the rotating shaft 20 and the counterweight 30 to transmit control signals to the respective valve elements 51 which control the respective power cylinders 40. The control signals may be fluid signals such as electric current or airflow or liquid flow. Additionally, each of the valve elements 51 is connected with the pressure source, and thus two ends of each valve elements 51 are respectively connected with the pressure source and the corresponding power cylinder 40 via pipes (not labeled with number in the drawings). When the counterweight 30 is rotationally displaced to a predetermined stroke, the control module 50 controls the valve elements to be turned on/off to selectively make the power cylinders 40 be communicated with the pressure source, so as to control the operation of the power cylinders 40 which are set in advance.
[0042] In this embodiment, the recirculating gradient power system further comprises a base 60. The power cylinders 40 are fixed to the base 60. The rotating shaft 20 is pivotally disposed on the base 60. The motion carrier 10 is mounted on the base 60 through a universal coupling seat 13.
[0043] In principle, the recirculating gradient power system of the present invention allows the motion carrier 10 to continuously rotate in the direction of displacement of the counterweight 30 to change the tilt orientation by means of the compressed fluid supplied from a fluid accumulator unit 70 (i.e. the pressure source as mentioned above), such as a high pressure gas bottle, an air compressor or a hydraulic device connected with the power cylinders 40, under the operation of the control module 50 and all the power cylinders 40, as shown in
[0044] In practical operation, to conveniently describe the details, the four power cylinders 40 are sequentially labeled by the left-side power cylinder 40L, the front-side power cylinder 40F, the right-side power cylinder 40R and the back-side power cylinder 40B, along a counterclockwise direction. The fluid accumulator unit 70 can be the high pressure gas bottle, the air compressor or the hydraulic device for supplying the compressed fluid, and herein the fluid accumulator unit 70 is the air compressor, for example. When operating, whether the high pressure gas in all of the left-side power cylinder 40L, the front-side power cylinder 40F, the right-side power cylinder 40R and the back-side power cylinder 40B has been exhausted to the outside environment is checked, and then the following steps are executed. At Step (1), the power is turned to actuate the motor of the fluid accumulator unit 70 (i.e. air compressor) to generate the high pressure air, wherein during the operation of the recirculating gradient power system, the electrical power is continuously provided to the air compressor to keep the motor operates continuously, so as to make sure that amount of the high pressure air which is larger than a threshold is continuously provided to the corresponding power cylinder 40 during the operation of the recirculating gradient power system. At Step (2), the counterweight 30 is moved to the position corresponding to the left-side power cylinder 40L. At Step (3), the control module 50 controls the valve element 51 corresponding to the left-side power cylinder 40L to be turned on, thus the air compressor provides the high pressure air to the left-side power cylinder 40L, and at the same time, the control module 50 controls the valve element 51 corresponding to the right-side power cylinder 40R to be turned off, resulting that the push rod 41 of the left-side power cylinder 40L is pulled up. Therefore, the motion carrier 10 changes its tilt orientation and tilt angle around its central vertical axis (i.e. the pivot axis is its central vertical axis), and the left side of the motion carrier 10 becomes the high point and the right side of the motion carrier 10 becomes the low point, so as to form a starting gradient. The counterweight 30 having the gravity potential energy due to the gravity can rotate counterclockwise from the high point of the motion carrier 10 to the low point of the motion carrier 10, to convert the gravity potential energy into kinetic energy, and the rotating shaft 20 is driven to rotate counterclockwise. At Step (4), when the contact sensing elements 52 detects that the counterweight 30 reaches the position corresponding to the front-side cylinder 40F, the control module 50 controls the valve element 51 corresponding to the back-side power cylinder 40B to be turned off, next, the high pressure gas in the back-side power cylinder 40B is exhausted to the outside environment to decline the push rod 41 of the back-side power cylinder 40B, the push rod 41 of the left-side power cylinder 40L maintains the ascending status, and the control module 50 controls the valve element 51 corresponding to the front-side power cylinder 40F to be turned on to make the air compressor provide the high pressure gas to the front-side power cylinder 40F, thus resulting that the push rod 41 of the front-side power cylinder 40F is pulled up. Therefore, the motion carrier 10 changes its tilt orientation and tilt angle around its central vertical axis (i.e. the pivot axis is its central vertical axis) again, and the left side and the front side of the motion carrier 10 becomes the high point and the right side and the back side of the motion carrier 10 becomes the low point, so as to form a first gradient. The counterweight 30 having the gravity potential energy due to the gravity can continuously rotate counterclockwise from the high point of the motion carrier 10 to the low point of the motion carrier 10, and the rotating shaft 20 is driven to rotate counterclockwise, as shown in
[0045] Next, Step (4) is executed again, and the Steps (4)-(7) are repeatedly executed to form the proceeding process of the recirculating gradient power system, and the first through fourth gradients are repeatedly formed, such that a continuous virtual gradient is formed, and the counterweight 30 can continuously obtain the gravity potential energy on the continuous virtual gradient and continuously convert the gravity potential energy to the kinetic energy to make the rotating shaft 20 continuously rotate counterclockwise. In the practical application, the recirculating gradient power system can be the teaching tool or the playing facility of the playground which requires the continuous rotation, and the rotating shaft 20 is utilized to drive a generator 80 to operate, such that the generator 80 can generate the electrical power and recycle the portion of the electrical power which is supplied to the air compressor.
[0046] As shown in
[0047] Further, the recirculating gradient power system of the present invention may further comprise at least one fluid accumulator unit 70 connected to each of the power cylinders 40. The at least one fluid accumulator unit 70 is an air compressor or a hydraulic device. Preferably, the recirculating gradient power system may further comprise at least one generator 80 to constitute a transmission coupling in cooperation with the rotating shaft 20 and at least one fluid accumulator unit 70 connected to each of the power cylinders 40.
[0048] It is noted that the counterweight 30 of the recirculating gradient power system of the present invention is provided with at least one roller 31 in contact with the motion carrier 10 to maintain the smooth running and reduce the friction loss. Furthermore, as shown in
[0049] Under the structure that the motion carrier 10 is provided with an annular track 11 and the counterweight 30 is provided with at least one roller 31 to roll on the track 11. The counterweight 30 may be provided with at least two auxiliary rollers 32 respectively corresponding to two sides of the track 11 to ensure that the roller 31 is surely rolled on the track 11.
[0050] In addition, the coupling mechanism 90, as shown in
[0051] Furthermore, the coupling mechanism 90, as shown in
[0052] According to the aforesaid embodiments of the recirculating gradient power system of the present invention, the recirculating gradient power system can be presented as the following implementations:
[0053] In the embodiment shown in
[0054] In the embodiment shown in
[0055] In the embodiment shown in
[0056] In the embodiment shown in
[0057] In the embodiment of
[0058] In the different embodiments shown in
[0059] In the respective embodiments shown in
[0060] It is noted that, during the operation of the circulating gradient power system, taking the embodiment which the annular tracks have the same diameter as an example, compared to the case that the counterweight 30 is disposed at a position where the center of mass of the counterweight 30 is located on the motion carrier 10, the case that the counterweight 30 is disposed at a position where the center of mass of the counterweight 30 is located at an outer side of the motion carrier 10 can have the larger gravity potential energy at Steps (3)-(7), and the converted kinetic energy is also larger.
[0061] In the circulating gradient power system of the present invention, the roller 31 of the counterweight 30 of the embodiments shown in
[0062] Compared with the prior art, the circulating gradient power system of the prevent invention has a track 11 annularly disposed on the motion carrier 10, the surface of the track 11 has the wear-resistant structure 12, and thus when the track 11 has been worn or damaged, merely the track 11 should be replaced without replacing the whole motion carrier 10. Further, the cross section of the track 11 is the T-shaped structure, and the design of the T-shaped structure can efficiently maintain the strength of the track 11, and further reduce the weight of the track 11. Moreover, the counterweight 30 is disposed at a position where the center of mass of the counterweight 30 is located at an outer side of the motion carrier 10, thus the counterweight 30 can have the larger gravity potential energy at, and the converted kinetic energy is also larger.
[0063] Although particular embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the present invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.