Unique 3D printed engine

[gbritnell]

A good friend who's into rare and unusual engines came up with this. It known as a toroidal swinging piston engine. He asked me if I could make a printed model of it for him. I made all the CAD models and printed them on my printer. The engineering behind it is it has a disc connected to the main shaft. Attached to this disc are 4 pistons. The main shaft drives a second disc with 4 pistons though an internal ring gear and scotch yoke setup. As the first ring and piston move the second ring and pistons oscillates to close the gap between pistons thereby creating combustion chambers and pushing out exhaust gasses and taking in a fresh air/fuel charge. It's like a 4 stroke operating principal but without valves. It fires 2 combustion chambers simultaneously and does this 4 times per revolution.
The engine was made around the early 1900's and is quite a mechanical and machining achievement for the time. Little is known of the manufacturer but has a carburetor from an early Indian motorcycle.

[gbritnell]

A few more pictures

[BillTodd]

Beck by any chance?

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/unusualICeng/toroidalIC/toroidalIC.htm

I don't think I animated that one.

[Admiral_dk]

Intriguing Engine George 

I think that I got some of the details sorted in my head - but also some I don't get ...!

The last picture - is that the Ignition + manual Advance ?

Shouldn't there be two Exhaust Ports (one might just be hidden by the angles of the photos) ...?

Don't really see the Scotch-Yoke in the pictures or how it is connected 

What is (missing) connected to the internal Gear next to the Power Output Axle ?

Per     

[gbritnell]

Hi Bill,
In my searching I had come across thar page but none of the engines pictured or described quite match this one.
Thanks for the link.
Gbritnell

[gbritnell]

Hi Per,
I'll make an exploded view of the engine and post it.

[gbritnell]

Some aspects of Solidworks I'm not familiar with so when I get into new areas I have to self teach with the aid of Youtube. Here are some screen shots of the engine.

[crueby]

Thats a pretty amazing design, never seen anything like it.

[Twizseven]

That looks a pretty amazing engine.  How long did it take to print all the parts.

Colin

[BillTodd]

Ah now I see. It what we (Doug and I) have been calling a pursuing piston design.  I've not seen one exactly like it.

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/unusualICeng/cat&mouse/cat&mouse.htm

[gbritnell]

It took about 50 hours. The main case took 26. I was using silver silk PLA. Bed temperature 53 and extruder temp 206. There's probably ways to make it print faster but I'm still learning 3D printing. So many little nuances about settings and such.

[Admiral_dk]

Thank you very much George - this clarifies the function very well 

I can't help wondering if it can be balanced at all - as it most likely has a very strange rotational vibration pattern with harmonics ...?
Then again - it might not be bad at all 

I do like the very few moving parts idea - but I'm not sure it is simple to make it last + it might need a two-stroke fuel/oil mix ....

Anybody know if they ever vent into any kind of production ?

Per

[gbritnell]

Hi Per,
It has pressure fed oil lubrication through small ports in the cylinder walls and feed lines to the bearing journals.  I didn't include them in the model because of the small size.

[Admiral_dk]

Thank you for clarifying that George 

I do understand why you didn't attempt to do the oilsystem.

Per