D E S C R I P T I O N

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention refers to a hydraulic generator, and more particularly to a rotating system in the form of a water wheel, by means of which usable energy is obtained for different purposes, either to move an electric generator or to drive a mechanism.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Several systems are known that use hydraulic power to obtain electric or mechanical energy. In this regard, the Spanish utility model ES 1074377 can be cited, which describes a submarine water wheel working with compressed air.

Similarly, the Spanish utility model ES 105831 1 can be cited, which claims a water wheel based on a container having a liquid therein in which the water wheel is submerged, being provided with a mobile lower container which collects the water poured by the upper container, and transmits, during the upward movement caused by the leverage effect exerted by a counterweight and the side handles of the container on a drives haft having a ratchet mechanism, the rotating movement over the water wheel shaft.

These systems, regardless their problematic when carrying out the practical realization thereof, show uncertain performance which make them economically unfeasible.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The water wheel being disclosed, which is based on a kind of rotating cylindrical frame having a horizontal shaft supported to a structure, so as to keep said cylindrical element submerged into a liquid, has a series of features that solve, in a completely satisfactory manner, the problematic set forth above, reducing the structural complexity thereof, featuring a high performance and a low maintenance cost, and without any type of fuel consumption, thereby causing no pollution.

More particularly, the water wheel of the invention is characterized in that, onto the side and annular surface of the cylindrical frame, a plurality of orifices have been provided in which corresponding radial plungers are placed featuring linear displacement in both directions, so as to emerge out of the surface of the casing or frame and constitute thrust floats for rotation of the case itself, being susceptible of hiding inside thereof and allowing rotation of said casing caused by the thrust provided by the above-mentioned plungers or floats.

Each of the plungers are associated to corresponding sprockets through a rod which in turn associates each plunger to the respective sprocket, in such a way that the rod is articulated to the corresponding plunger at one of its ends, and it is eccentrically articulated to the sprocket at the other.

The combination of the sprockets, as main components of the water wheel, with a fixed disc mounted on the actual rotation shaft of the water wheel, and provided at the periphery thereof with two toothed sections into which respective opposing sprockets mesh, these being an input sprocket and an output one, so as to achieve that, in a continuous manner, a plunger successively emerges outside the casing surface while at the same time the opposite plunger hides into the casing, results in a number of plungers being arranged such that they emerge outside the casing at a certain moment while the other half hide inside the casing, wherein the emerging ones define thrust floats for rotating the casing and consequently the water wheel assembly.

The gear system, as it has been mentioned above, provides great durability and high performance and precision to the system.

The toothed sections of the fixed disc are not phase shifted 180° among them, but they have a phase shifting near said 180° so that upon a sprocket meshing onto the respective toothed section the plunger itself starts to hide and, however, the opposing sprocket meshes with the other section and causes that the respective plunger starts to emerge.

That is, the plungers will start to emerge and hide before reaching the vertical centre of the circumference so that rotation takes place in the correct direction.

The rotation shaft of the cylindrical casing forming the water wheel is a horizontal shaft having two lateral and vertical arms, through which it stabilizes over a floating platform arranged on the surface of the liquid where the water wheel assembly is mounted and wherein said surface can be the sea surface, so that the water wheel assembly is submerged into the sea water and the floating platform remains on the water surface, allowing an efficient and safe operation of the system. It should be said that, except for the two sprockets meshing with the toothed sections of the fixed disc mounted on the rotation shaft of water wheel, the rest of the sprockets do not intermesh in the circular displacement thereof during the wheel rotation, thus keeping a constant position, with the collaboration of an annular and lateral guide provided on the carrier disc of the toothed sections.

It should also be noted that the horizontal section of the rotation shaft of the cylindrical casing of the water wheel has some orifices through which it is possible to compensate the pressure exerted by the floating plungers when emerging and hiding inside the casing, with said shaft being obviously hollow.

Evidently, sealing means will be provided corresponding to the orifices in which the plungers or the float-forming elements are radially movable, so as to avoid water from coming into the cylindrical casing, said sealing means being also included in the corresponding shaft assembly and obviously in any element which can be in contact with water.

Lastly, it should be said that the length of the floating plungers will depend on the size of the sprockets of the gear system, since rotation thereof is transformed into a linear movement for these floating plungers, so if the floating plungers are intended to come out further outwards, the gear sprockets must be bigger, so the water wheel size as a whole will obviously increase.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the total weight of the wheel assembly will be a 98% with respect to the water volume it displaces when submerged in the liquid. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To implement the present description and in order to provide a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, according to a preferred embodiment thereof, a set of drawings is attached as part of this description, with an illustrative but not limitative purpose, which represents the following:

Figure 1.- It shows a side and diametrical section view of a water wheel realized according to the object of the present invention.

Figure 2.- It shows an exploded view of the different elements and pieces involved in the constitution of the water wheel in the previous figure.

Figure 3.- It shows a perspective view of the configuration of the rotation shaft of the wheel.

Figure 4.- It shows an augmented detail of reference "A" of the previous figure, allowing the orifices in the horizontal section of the rotation shaft of the wheel to be seen.

Figure 5.- It finally shows a detail of three different positions for the plunger corresponding to an emerging position, an intermediate position and a hiding position, respectively.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

In view of the figures being described, it can be observed that the water wheel being disclosed comprises a cylindrical and hollow casing (1 ), on the lateral or perimetral side of which a plurality of orifices are provided having equiangular distribution, in which other corresponding plungers (2) are arranged featuring radial displacement, each of them being associated to a sprocket (3) through respective rods (4), being linked to the plunger (2) through a joint (5) at one side, whereas at the other side the rod (4) is articulated to an eccentric point (6) of the sprocket (3).

The sprocket (3) assembly is mounted through the rotation shafts thereof to the casing (1 ), over an imaginary circumference line, thus being facing the periphery of a rotational disc (7) mounted on the actual rotation shaft (8) and concretely on the horizontal section (8 ^' ) thereof, in such a way that this section of the shaft (8 ^' ) is implemented with two vertical sections (8 ^" ) forming a U-shaped structure as a support for the wheel assembly onto a floating platform, not shown in the figures. Said rotational disc includes toothed sections (9) affecting essentially opposing sections of the disc, where the sprockets (3) selectively mesh.

The horizontal section (8 ^' ) forming the rotation shaft itself, comprises orifices (1 1 ) so as to compensate the pressure exerted by the floats forming the plungers (2), when hiding and emerging with respect to the lateral and annular surface of the actual casing (1 ) of the wheel. In this way, when the plungers (2) are emerging with respect to the lateral surface of the casing (1 ), as it is depicted in figure 1 , these floats tend to go upwards because of flotation, and therefore force rotation of the cylindrical casing by means of the rods (6) displacing and acting over the sprockets (3). When each of the sprockets (3) reach the position where they mesh with the corresponding section (9), these mesh with those belonging to the disc (7) and cause the floats (2) to hide or emerge, with the special feature of having intermediate sprockets (3) which do not mesh to the toothed sections (9), thus not rotating since they do not mesh, remaining fixed until they mesh again in the key positions, that is, until they reach again the toothed areas or sections (9).

In order to keep the sprockets (3) which do not mesh during the wheel rotation stable, and to prevent their position from changing, a perimetral guide (10) is provided being associated to the disc (7). It should be said that the casing (1 ) is closed by means of a cover (12) which is clearly seen in figure 2, through which the central section (8 ) of the rotation shaft of wheel runs.

According to what has been stated herein, when a sprocket (3) meshes to a toothed section (9) of the disc (7), that sprocket (3) rotates 180° in such a way that the float forming the respective plunger (2), joined thereto by means of the rod (4), performs a linear outward movement, that is, so as to emerge outside the casing (1 ) or to hide inwards depending on the actual toothed section (9), thus taking advantage of the constant angular rotation movement which is generated in the wheel.