Subject: Rota Power Engines
From: Rotary Engine
Date: 9/8/2005, 11:32 AM
To: AA-me



re the Rota Power engines.

1.  Contacted Eric Barger re the coatings on the housings.  He defined
them as "Propietary".  Actually, after reading the materials on the
Moller, Freedom Motors and RotaPower sites I don't think he is free to
give any other answers.  If I'm understanding things correctly, Freedom
took a license from NASA for some type of coating technology and that is
the coating which was just tested for 100 hours by ThermoFan.

2.  As of the spring of 2005, Freedom Motors has apparently signed a
series of licensing agreements with different firms for different market
segments.  An outfit named Madami International apparently wants to use
the 650 engine for snowmobiles.  ThermoFan is working with Freedom to
develop a 150cc diesel-fueled rotary to be used as an auxiliary power
unit for the trucking industry - particularly refrigerated semi's.  A
small dedicated engine running on the same fuel as the tractor makes a
lot of sense and would save fuel when the truck is just sitting.  A
least one of the coatings that have been tried is plasma deposited.  It
is not clear whether this has a ceramic base or?  They are going after
the GPU unit business with a vengence.  They claim that a small
dedicated rotary for this application is a good replacement for current
turbine GPU's as the turbine is 23 times more expensive and 45% less
energy efficient than the rotary.  What I didn't see is their estimate
of the MTBO of the rotary versus the turbine.

3.  A point of interest - I asked Barger if the dimensioned drawings
available on the technical section of the Freedom Motors site under
"footprint" are an accurate representation of the 650, 1300 cc engines
under development.  His answer is yes, but he is developing new "smaller
and lighter" end pieces.

4.  Freedom Motors is also negotiating with a Swiss firm regarding a
factory in Europe to produce rotaries.

5.  Overall, the Freedom Motor plan seem to be development of small
engines for the power tool market, slightly larger units with a
multi-fuel capability for the APG and GPU market and further development
of the liquid-cooled 650 and 1300 series for larger applications.

6.  One interesting side note is that at one point, Freedom was working
with a company called "Infinate Machines" to develop a 1600 cc Wankel
for the RPV market.  Apparently this other firm was later acquired by
Moller/Freedom.

7.  I haven't seen any information on the status of the earlier 530
series engines.  I was previously informed that they were designed for
industrial use and not well adapted to applications with sudden changes
in throttle - some kind of cooling issue.

8.  In general, the Freedom/RotaPower engines seem to be "industrial
strength" units built around a rotor design with a series of
Moller/Freedom patents intended to reduce production part count and
costs.  I'm intrigued by the lubrication system.  It doesn't mix
fuel/oil at all, and was probably prompted by CARB considerations.

9.  I'm waiting to see what the cooling and exhaust specs are on these
engines.  The small predessor engines (OMC and Fichtel-Sachs) that used
similar techologies had quite a bark on the exhaust side.  Silencing
them and dealing with the heat exchange issues in stationary
applications is going to be a packaging issue.

but whadda I know.
George Wright

The contract Moller had with NASA is a matter of public record.
Therefore so too are the coatings. I read about them somewhere but
I don't have them at my finger tips right at the moment.

As I recall it is not detonation gun coating. Other people have tried
all sorts of coatings other than detonation type and detonation type
appears to be the only coating that works on bare aluminum.
The main problem seems to be uniformity and quality control in production.
The list includes Wankel Gmbh, Mazda, Curtis Wright, John Deere, RPI,
Norton, Midwest Engines, Racing Beat and Alturair.

Detonation type coatings are what Mazda used on the Lemans engine.
Alturair also tested detonation coatings and found them to be durable.

Frankly if Moller has anything to do with it I would not buy one of
these engine until a totally independent party with no vested interest
test one in actually field conditions for at least 1000 hours.

It is not for nothing that the Mazda engine is still around
with its steel lined and chrome plated rotor housing while
all others have disappeared.

Paul Lamar




The Rotary Engine NewsLetter. Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. http://www.rotaryeng.net
Copyright 1998-2005 All world wide rights reserved.