Packing strip arrangement for highly superheated gases in engines and other working machines

Claim 1

In a sealing strip arrangement for a rotary piston engine of trochoidal construction with an inner or outer envelope curve and having a plurality of working chambers, radial grooves in the periphery of that one of the housing and piston of said engine which corresponds to said envelope curve, sealing strip means mounted in said grooves, smaller in radial dimension than said grooves to form a groove space beneath said sealing strip means and having arch-shaped domes on the edge thereof facing the other of said housing and piston, and a pair of bores connecting said groove space with first and second working chambers, respectively, of said engine, the improvement comprising, said domes having their center of curvature positioned on the exact point of intersection of the trochoid and said envelope curve, said sealing strip means having both sides thereof in sufficiently tight contact with the corresponding side walls of said grooves to prevent said sealing strip means from moving transvErsely in said grooves throughout operation of said engine and thereby maintain said center of curvature of said domes on said point of intersection at all times and maintain an essentially gas tight relation between both sides of said sealing strip means and said side walls of said grooves, a pair of second bores radially extending from said grooves and each connecting said groove space with a respective one of the first-mentioned bores, sealing element means mounted in said grooves at the base of said sealing strip means and resting against said side walls of said grooves, sealing cuff means mounted in said groove space and adapted to close off said second bores and spring means mounted in said groove space between said sealing element means and said sealing cuff means to simultaneously act against said sealing cuff means and said sealing element means and thereby urge said sealing strip means outwardly.