Vane-type compressor

Claim 1

A vane-type compressor comprising: a housing cylinder exhibiting eccentric inner housing guide surfaces, a rotor rotatably mounted in said housing cylinder, a plurality of vanes carried by said rotor in substantially radially extending slots so as to be slidably movable in said slots in response to their outer end surfaces acting against the inner housing guide surfaces during relative rotation of the rotor and housing cylinder, at least one ring groove in said rotor which communicates with respective radial inner ends of said slots, and elastic ring means disposed in said at least one ring groove for elastically abuttingly engaging inner end surfaces of the vanes when they are adjacent their respective inner dead center positions, said vanes and elastic ring means being configured such that they are out of contact with one another during substantial portions of the compressor operations when the vanes are away from their inner dead center positions, said slots extending at a slight angle to the radius of the rotor in such a manner that, in operation, the vanes cause the elastic ring means to slide sequentially around the at least one ring groove during sequential engagement and disengagement of the vanes and the elastic ring means.