Sealing device for use in rotary piston engine

Claim 1

A sealing device for use in a rotaty piston internal combustion engine having a rotor eccentrically rotatably accommodated in a rotor cavity formed by a center housing having a substantially epitrochoidally shaped bore for said rotor cavity and a pair of end walls secured to both ends of said center housing, said rotor having an annular groove on each of the opposite side surfaces of said rotor defined by a pair of outer and inner groove faces, the plane of each of which lies in parallel relation to the longitudinal axis of said rotor, and a bottom face facing towards a corresponding end wall; said sealing device comprising a first, substantially circularly curved sealing strip means and a second, substantially circularly curved sealing strip means, both slidably accommodated within said groove for sliding in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the rotor; first biasing means for biasing said first and second sealing strip means flat against the respective groove faces in the radially outwards and inwards directions, respectively, comprising a circular member made of elastically deformable metallic material and having a plurality of elastic tongue members alternately radially outwardly and inwardly bent from the plane of said circular member in the same direction at intervals, a set of said tonuge members which are radially outwardly bent from said circular member Acting to press one sealing strip means against the one groove face while another set of the tongue members, which are radially inwardly bent from said circular member act to press the other sealing strip means against the other groove face, and second biasing means within said groove for biasing said first and second sealing strip means outwardly of said groove, thereby causing one end face of each of said sealing strip means adjacent to the opening of said groove to tightly but slidably contact the corresponding end wall.