Neat simple design, if it doesn't have any seal problems not much to wear out. The demo animation take a while to download

http://kugelmotor.peraves.ch/index_en.htm

Seems kind of similar to the Wankel engine in many respects. Any thoughts on this?

Eric

I don't know how much it's like a Wankel but it's not a piston engine. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Bet it revs like a MoFo.


Click to view attachment

Reminds me of the squash plate engine from the 2nd world war.

... a way better option... IMHO

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...&hl=revetec

hm...looks interesting. Wonder if it is powerful enough for a car though?

3 moving parts my ass.

Looks like it's somewhere between a piston and a Wankel. Still has parts that must accelerate/decelerate on each rotation, although not to the extent that a piston does. The rotary valve is going to limit breathing, but it has forced induction to compensate.

For all it's shortcomings, I think the Wankel design is far superior.

That is really cool.
amazing what people invent.

Rich

Unfortunately the video is not mac compatible, so I couldn't watch it.

I agree with you Todd, but at this point in time it's a new idea- with a few more years of R+D they may really have a breakthrough in engine tech. Plus I think the fact that they do have a working prototype speaks for the engine's potential, even if it is just a scooter.

It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Seriously? There are probably other ways also to get it done, but I've been using this on my macbook for over 2 years.


flip4mac link on apple.com

Literal URL for the paranoid types:

...the animation does not represent the side loading on the guides. The ceramic hemi-spheres take the loads perpendicular, instead of axial. There will be a lot of internal friction at those four points. It will not be able to sustain high rpms because of that loading. Sintered ceramics are hard, but very brittle.
Also the work side of that stroke is loosing power because no matter how much force is created, the guide slots control the rate of expansion.
I see intake flow restrictions at six places. The intake pulse will not be stable and will have dead spots. The rotating disks at certain rpms will create problems as well. Even their port shape has problems.
but that's just me.....

Nah, it's a piston engine.....

Friction and high loads looks like it might be a problem.. Those pistons have large surface areas that rub flat on flat, not a ring in a cylinder. The power transmission depends on the spreading pistons pushing on those balls and the balls push against the figure 8 grooves in the case to provide rotary power to the crank. Hopefully they have optimized the surface areas with a little careful analysis, but spheres tend to apply point loads (aka aw shit, very high). Rollers might be a better choice ( a line of contact and lower loading) but they might have to be a funky tapered shape.

Haven't thought it out completely but I suspect that the balls may have to change rotational direction as they travel around the grooves (move together, move apart). If they do, the rotating balls will have inertia and slamming them to a stop and reversing rotational direction causes "interesting" wear and noise problems. I saw a Rovac air conditioner at one time with a similar problem. Theoretically, it worked great and actually provided tons of cooling from a very small unit with NO FREON. In actuality, it put out SOOO much noise from the bearings changing direction, it made your ears bleed. They said that they initially had wear issues from the directional changes, but had overcome them.

I bet wear of a spherical ball in a case groove might be a problem and might require a ceramic case($$$$$$$). Ceramic on ceramic is an ok bearing surface, but I'm not sure what a little hydrocarbon byproduct woud do to gum up the works.

That being said, its way cool, let's build one and see what the heck happens....
And a little long term testing will really tell how well it works.

Ken

"Unfortunately the video is not mac compatible, so I couldn't watch it."

Go to versiontracker.com download VLC. You'll be able to look at almost anything and can even copy scenes from movies.

Oh, and the engine...That would be crazy to machine all those surfaces. What maintains the seals between the walls of the orb and combustion chambers?

You can machine ceramics to a nats ass.

Japanese ceramic company brought in a play toy sample that was about 5 inches long and comprised a long piston and rod assembly. The rod slid in the bore without much resistance, and could draw a vacuum.

And the price was $350 or so in quantity...

$$$pendy $$tuff

Ken

Somewhat off topic, but does anyone remember the name of the engine being developed by an Aussie inventor (early 90's?)that seemed to have so much potential, and generated a lot of press, and what became of it?

Thanks for the link Wilhelm.

And now that I've seen the video... I stand by my previous statements.

That other Aussie engine was the Orbital Engine. Did a search, the company is working on things other than that engine and Wikipedia had an answer...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_engine

Hmmm..... site seems buggy, It won't let me post a link... I get a title error and an url error....

Ken