Forgot to mention: one of these engines is scheduled to race in an Indy V8 Ute class this weekend at the Lexmark 300.
BTTT
That is prety cool. The IC engine still has a few tricks up its sleeve and won't be going away anytime soon.
Seems like the bearings might be the weak point.
Seems that bar moving back and forth is generating as much loss as a piston engine.
THANKS for the post! I am always interested in new technology!..........
Interesting find. Thanks for the post.
Wow, that is pure elegance. Most of these breakthrough improvements to the piston engine are flops, but this looks truly promising. It's always good when you can improve through simplification.
Very interesting
"fewer parts"
Does it have two counter rotating shafts? And won't you need gears to combine the two output shafts?
Hard to believe that a 75% weight reduction could be achieved from replacing the crankshaft with cams.
Have you seen Pempek's FP3 engine? FP3 stands for Free Piston Power Pack. It seems like a somewhat similar compact, simple solution. No crankshaft, no connecting rods, passive and electronically controlled valves (no valve train), no starter needed, perfect compatibility with hybrid systems....
Pempek is a company with only 3 employees, but they've managed to get 24hp per pack (2 cylinder), with an expectation of 34hp achievable. Their estimates say that if they get 34hp, they can double the mileage of a Prius without losing power or requiring a plugin (its a very compact, small, and light engine).
They're also working on a diesel design (diesel being simpler to implement) that is projected to produce 400HP, and a 600HP version that should be 1/7th the size of a conventional diesel of similar output. Their director says "If we're successful, it could basically sit in the crankcase of a diesel V8 with the same output"...
Lots of potential, but until recently, not much incentive in terms of $$$ to go out and nail fuel efficiency....
thanx
This a nice innovative idea using a soon to be outdated principle of harnessing combusted fuel oil.
When I can feed my vehicle the garbage/refuse/effluent I put out on the street for collection or flush down my toilet I'll be ready to invest.
I will add that Dr. Felix Wankel would be properly impressed with this one. :-)
The basic mechanism does the same job as the old "Scotch Yoke" used in countless millions of home refrigerator compressors. They were simpler and had far fewer moving parts, just a crank and some type of roller contact to push the yoke back and forth. I don't know of any IC engines that used that mechanism but I don't see why one couldn't.
I don't understand the "advantage" of being able to use a lower compression ratio unless it would be allowing the use of poor quality fuel. All other things being equal, engine efficiency and specific power output relies on use of highest possible compression ratio with clever combustion chamber design to suppress pinging.
bump for later. Looks cool.
cool stuff ping
Thought you might be interested ping
A few things to note here:
1) Mercedes worked on the Wankel for a while in the 60's...
( one of it's prototypes appeared regularly in the series UFO)
2) John Deere built a number of Wankels in the 80's in the SCORE series of engines (Stratified Charge Omniverous Rotory Engine)
3) My worry about this new engine would be lubrication. I don't see how the Piston Bearings or Rings can be force lubricated in this configuration. In most conventional engines, pressurized oil is fed through the crank to the big end bearings. Some is forced out into the pan, but some goes through the connecting rod to the small end bearing. This then is forced out and sprays the cylindar walls. The Rings in his engine may have a direct spray from somewhere in the block, but those bearings might find themselves on too lean a diet.
Just a few thoughts.
A few things to note here:
1) Mercedes worked on the Wankel for a while in the 60's...
( one of it's prototypes appeared regularly in the series UFO)
2) John Deere built a number of Wankels in the 80's in the SCORE series of engines (Stratified Charge Omniverous Rotory Engine)
3) My worry about this new engine would be lubrication. I don't see how the Piston Bearings or Rings can be force lubricated in this configuration. In most conventional engines, pressurized oil is fed through the crank to the big end bearings. Some is forced out into the pan, but some goes through the connecting rod to the small end bearing. This then is forced out and sprays the cylindar walls. The Rings in his engine may have a direct spray from somewhere in the block, but those bearings might find themselves on too lean a diet.
Just a few thoughts.