Robert Huber (7 July 1901 - 7 April 1995) was born in Freienstein, Switzerland. He attended a primary school in Freienstein from 1908 to 1914 and a secondary school in Freienstein from 1914 to 1916. From 1916 to 1920 he attended a high school in Zurich. From 1920 to 1924 he studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (now ETH Zurich) under Professor Aurel Stodola.[1]

Career

In 1924, Huber became Technical Director of the Bureau Technique Pescara where he supervised the design of nearly 30 different sizes and types of free-piston engine and acquired the nickname "Mr Free Piston". The first was the AC-2,[2] running on petrol (gasoline). The second was the AC-3, which was similar but ran on diesel fuel. Eighteen types of free-piston engine were built and tested.

In 1932, Huber read a book by Professor Lomonosov about diesel locomotives. He also heard of a proposal by Petro Shelest for turbines driven by compressed air. This information gave him the idea of developing the free-piston gas turbine. Several of these were designed but not built. Finally, in 1938–39, the world's first free-piston generator was built. It used two G-30[2] machines and drove an 800 kW alternator.

Huber stayed at Bureau Technique Pescara (which became Société d'études mécaniques et énergétiques[3] (SEME) in 1939) until 1962. During his time there, thousands of free-piston engines had been sold. Huber continued to work on free-piston engines until at least 1967.

Huber was a pioneer in the development of common rail fuel injection in the 1960s.[4]

Patents

Robert Huber has about 40 patents related to free-piston engines. A few examples are listed below:

  • US2452194 (A), published 1948-10-26, Free piston machine [5]
  • US2645213 (A), published 1953-07-14, Free piston engine having hollow pistons [6]
  • US2943438 (A), published 1960-07-05, Improvements in free piston engine and gas turbine power plant [7]
  • US2990680 (A), published 1961-07-04, Devices for starting and stopping free piston machines and in particular free piston auto-generators [8]

Family life

On 12 August 1942, Huber married Ursula Meyer.

Final years

Huber wrote a biography in the 1980s. He died on 7 April 1995.

References

  1. ↑ "History". Archived from the original on 2012-01-08. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
  2. 1 2 Image freikolben.ch
  3. ↑ (in French) Les groupes électrogènes à turbines à gaz alimentées par générateurs à pistons libres - R. Huber, October 1954
  4. ↑ "Common Rail Injection History: Less Conspiracy, More Efficiency - Engine Builder Magazine". enginebuildermag.com. 20 August 2012. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
  5. ↑ "Espacenet - Original document". worldwide.espacenet.com. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
  6. ↑ "Espacenet - Original document". worldwide.espacenet.com. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
  7. ↑ "Espacenet - Original document". worldwide.espacenet.com. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
  8. ↑ "Espacenet - Original document". worldwide.espacenet.com. Retrieved 2015-09-04.


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