Variable displacement compressor

Abstract

A variable displacement compressor includes a housing, a rotary shaft, a bearing, a seal member, a shaft seal chamber, a discharge refrigerant passage and a partition. The partition is provided in the shaft seal chamber for partitioning the shaft seal chamber into a first seal chamber to which the discharge refrigerant passage is opened and a second seal chamber part of the periphery of which is formed by the bearing and the seal member. The partition is provided with a first guide passage through which refrigerant containing lubricating oil flowed from the discharge refrigerant passage into tho first seal chamber is substantially all supplied to the seal member of the second seal chamber.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a variable displacement compressor and more particularly to a structure for lubricating a seal member sealing a rotary shaft of the variable displacement compressor.[0002]Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 4-179874 discloses a swash plate compressor including a crankcase, a rotary shaft, a radial bearing and a lip seal. The crankcase has therein a crank chamber. The rotary shaft is supported by the radial bearing and one end of the rotary shaft is exposed outside the crankcase. The lip seal serves to seal the rotary shaft. The crankcase, the rotary shaft, the radial bearing and the lip seal cooperate to form a space. The rotary shaft has therein a pressure control passage through which compressed refrigerant gas flows into the crank chamber. In addition, the rotary shaft has therein an oil feed hole for interconnecting the pressure control passage and the space. A part of the compressed refrigerant gas flows ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a variable displacement compressor that includes a housing, a rotary shaft, a bearing, a seal member, a shaft seal chamber, a discharge refrigerant passage and a partition. The housing has a crank chamber. The rotary shaft is disposed in the crank chamber with at least one end thereof exposed outside the housing. The bearing is disposed in the housing for rotatably supporting the rotary shaft. The seal member is disposed in the housing at a position between the exposed end of the rotary shaft and the bearing for preventing refrigerant mixed with lubricating oil from leaking out of the housing along the rotary shaft. The shaft seal chamber is forme

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, the lubricating oil fails to be supplied in an adequate amount to the sliding surfaces between the rotary shaft and the lip seal and such poor lubrication may deteriorate the reliability of the lip seal.

In addition, the lubricating oil contained in the refrigerant gas flowed into the region of the shaft seal chamber between the partition and the bearing through the discharge refrigerant passage is difficult to flow into the region of the shaft seal chamber between the lip seal and the partition because the partition is provided in the shaft seal chamber for separating the lip seal and the bearing and also the clearance between the partition and the rotary shaft is vary small.

Therefore, the lubricating oil fails to be supplied in an adequate amount to the sliding surfaces between the lip seal and the rotary shaft and such poor lubrication may deteriorate the reliability of the lip seal.

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