Radial piston type hydraulic engine - has flexible joint between shoe and piston with separate ball

摘要

The engine has a rotating cylinder block (2) with radial cylinders (3). A piston (6) reciprocating in each cylinder has a shoe (7) on its outer end which runs on a guide ring (8) on the inside of the engine stator. The ring is eccentric to the cylinder block and thus causes the pistons to reciprocate. Each piston (6) has two projecting lugs (10, 10') in the form of arcs of a circle. A sphere (16) is inserted between them. The shoe has two similar lugs arranged at right angles to those on the piston. It is pushed over the sphere so that its lugs hold it to the sphere. This forms a flexible connection with the ball of the joint separate from both the shoe and the piston.