Cam driven piston compressor apparatus

Abstract

A compressor apparatus for compressing fluids includes a compression vessel having a collapsible vessel internal space having an expanded size and a compressed size, the compression vessel having intake structure for passing fluid into the vessel internal space from a fluid source and output structure for passing fluid out of the vessel internal space; a rotatable cam structure having a cam structure rotational axis and at least one radial cam protrusion positioned to periodically abut the compression vessel and compress the vessel internal space; a rotational drive mechanism drivably connected to the rotatable cam structure for rotatably driving the cam structure and the cam protrusion about the cam structure rotational axis; and a compression vessel expansion mechanism for expanding the vessel internal space to its expanded size subsequent to each compression of the vessel internal space.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates generally to the field of compression and storage of fluids and particularly to compression of gaseous matter. More specifically the present invention relates to a compressor apparatus including at least one cylinder and piston assembly including a cylinder having a cylinder head and a tubular cylinder side wall and a piston structure slidably retained within the tubular cylinder side wall, the cylinder head having an intake port fitted with an intake valve for passing fluid into the cylinder from a fluid source and an output port fitted with an output valve for passing fluid out of the cylinder such as to a fluid reservoir, valve operating means, a rotatable cam structure in the form of a cam wheel having a cam structure axle and radial cam protrusions in the form of cam arms positioned to periodically abut and displace the piston structure inwardly toward the cylinder head, and rotati...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] The cylinder and piston assembly and the cam structure preferably are both fastened to an apparatus framework to position the cylinder and piston assembly and the cam structure in operational relation with each other. The apparatus framework preferably includes an apparatus housing. The intake port preferably is covered by an air filter structure. The at least one cam protrusion preferably is at least one cam arm and the cam structure preferably includes a cam wheel having a cam wheel circumferential surface to which the at least one cam arm is mounted. The compressor apparatus preferably additionally includes a flywheel mounted to rotate in unison with the cam structure to provide smooth cam structure rotation.

[0020] The cam arms preferably are each moved to one of the first side of the cam wheel circumferential surface and the second side of the cam wheel circumferential surface by electro magnets mounted adjacent opposing faces of the cam wheel and adjacent to the cam wheel circumferential surface; so that activation of either the electro magnet pulls each immediately adjacent cam arm to the adjacent the side of the cam wheel circumferential surface, and the given the electro magnet can be activated and deactivated as the cam wheel is rotated by the drive mechanism so that only selected cam arms are moved to a given side of the cam wheel circumferential surface to provide a desired number of cam arms in registration with the at least one cylinder and piston assembly associated with the cam wheel.

Problems solved by technology

A problem with these prior compressors has been that they can produce only one compression per motor or engine revolution, limiting compression to a specific rate which may or may not be suited for a given application.

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