Vane Pump Friction Reduction via Guide Protrusions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vane-type hydraulic devices face inefficiencies due to high frictional resistance and complexity, as vanes are constantly pressed against the pump housing by discharge pressure, leading to mechanical inefficiency and increased size.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates engaging sections with protrusions and grooves on the rotor and vane accommodating member, allowing vanes to move in proximity to the inner surface, reducing friction and enabling a compact, simple structure by altering the eccentricity of the vane case, which changes the pump chamber volume, and is driven by a compression spring and fluid pressure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If discharge pressure is used to press vanes against the inner peripheral surface of the pump housing, then the vanes are constantly pressed with force corresponding to discharge pressure, but the frictional resistance between the front tips of the vanes and the inner peripheral surface becomes greater, reducing mechanical efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
A guide member is introduced as an intermediary component between the vane and the pump housing. The guide member has a guide surface that the vane tip follows, replacing direct contact between the vane tip and the pump housing inner peripheral surface. This mediator reduces frictional resistance and wear while maintaining the necessary contact stability for pump operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The direct mechanical contact system between the vane tip and the pump housing is replaced with a guided contact system. Instead of the vane tip directly pressing against the housing surface, the motion is constrained and guided by the guide member, substituting a high-friction mechanical interface with a lower-friction guided interface.
2Reliability
If a vane back pressure chamber is provided and discharge pressure is guided to it, then vanes are pressed constantly against the inner peripheral surface, but the pump structure becomes complicated and larger in size
Solution Approach 1:
The complex vane back pressure chamber mechanism is extracted and replaced by a simpler guide member system. The essential function of maintaining vane contact with the housing is achieved through the guide member's geometric constraint, eliminating the need for the elaborate back pressure chamber structure while maintaining reliable vane pressing.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using pressure guidance to achieve vane contact (the conventional approach), the invention inverts the approach by using geometric constraint through the guide member to achieve contact. The guide member's shape and position inherently ensure the vane maintains contact with the housing inner peripheral surface during rotation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration reduces frictional resistance, enhances mechanical efficiency, simplifies the device structure, and allows for adjustable discharge flow while maintaining uniform ejection pressure, resulting in a more compact and cost-effective vane-type hydraulic device.
Implementation Method 1
a compression spring which impels the vane case towards one side in the direction of linear movement
Implementation Method 2
the vane case is pressed to the other side against the impelling force of the impelling member, by causing a fluid pressure of fluid discharged from the pump chamber to act on the vane case
Implementation Method 3
the rotor is disposed inside the rotor accommodating space in a state of having a prescribed amount of eccentricity with respect to an inner peripheral surface of the rotor accommodating member
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3
AI summary
A vane pump (1) includes: a front side vane case (40), a rear side vane case (50), a pump housing (60), a pump cover (70), a drive shaft (30), a rotationally driven rotor (10), and vanes (20) provided in slot sections (13), wherein engaging groove sections and guide protrusions (46, 52), which engaging one another, are provided in the vanes (20), the front side vane case (40) and the rear side vane case (50), the engaging groove sections and guide protrusions (46, 52) are composed in such a manner that the vanes (20) move following a proximal inner peripheral surface (42b) in a state where the vane is proximate to the proximal inner peripheral surface (42b), in accordance with rotation of the rotor (10), and pump chambers are demarcated by the vanes (20) situated in proximity with the proximal inner peripheral surface (42b).