Internal combustion engine with opposed pistons

Claim 1

A combustion engine comprising: a plurality of cylinders each containing a pair of aligned pistons displaceable toward and away from one another, said cylinders including inlet and outlet ports for admitting fuel and discharging exhaust gas, each piston carrying a cam roller; a drive shaft; and rotary cam disc means connected to said drive shaft and arranged to be contacted by said cam rollers of said pistons for transferring motion between said rotary cam disc means and said pistons, said rotary cam disc means including cam curves arranged to be engaged by cam rollers of respective pistons of each said pair of pistons, each cam curve having circumferentially spaced peaks and valleys whereby a cam roller travels from a peak to a valley during a power stroke of said piston, each peak being connected with a successive valley by an interconnecting surface of said cam curve along which a respective cam roller travels during a power stroke, said interconnecting surface presenting a slope which progressively decreases from adjacent said peak to adjacent said valley.