Seawater hydraulic vane-type motor

Claim 1

A vane type hydraulic motor operable with seawater as the hydraulic fluid, comprising a centralized ring member having an eccentric ring track interior surface with a major and minor diameter portion, a rotor disposed within the ring, said rotor having a central axially extending shaft and a plurality of spaced apart circumferential slots for accepting vanes in the perimeter of the rotor; spring loaded vanes disposed in said rotor slots, which vanes are biased outward against the ring track in sliding seal relation to the ring track wherein the spring loaded vanes are generally rectangular members having an arcuate outer end portion which serves as a sliding seal against the ring track, the base of the vane members has at least one spring receiving aperture therein, the vane member has side faces normal to the direction of rotor rotation, which side faces include grooves which extend along the entire extent of the opposed side faces in a non-radial direction normal to the direction of rotation, with a radially extending slot extending from the side face grooves to the base of the vane; a pair of flexible side seal plates disposed on either side of the rotor and ring in sliding seal and thrust bearing relationship with the rotor and shaft, which flexible side seal plates have hydraulic fluid inlet and outlet passages; a pair of end plates sealable to the side seal plates with fluid inlet and outlet ports and communicating end plate passages aligned with side seal plate passages to permit high pressure hydraulic fluid to be introduced into the space between the rotor and ring track at the ramps where the vanes follow the ring track from the minor to major diameter, and to permit low pressure flow to exit from the space between the rotor and ring track at ramps where the vanes follow the ring track from the major to minor diameter.