> Hi Paul & all,
>
> "Subject: More comments from Paul Lamar
> As back ground info on the rotary. The bare engine block weighs about
> 190 pounds with cast iron end housings. About 140 pounds with
aluminum
> end housings."
>
> Anyone flying with these aluminum end housings? Any links to more
info?
> (Please excuse my ignorance if these are well known or previously
> discussed items)
>
> Thanks,
> Hennie
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> Never a problem on previously discussed items.
> That is why we are here.
>
> Not that I know of now. Allan Tolle probably flew an Everett Hatch
> all aluminum engine ten years ago or so.
>
> They are rather expensive. At about $1200 to $1500 USD
> from Racing Beat. The rear and two rotor intermediate housings
> in this 3 rotor engine picture are aluminum.
>
> There is some question about the wear surface process and durability.
> Racing Beat would not tell me what the wear surface process was so I
> doubt it
> was detonation gun coated. If I were building all aluminum end
housings
> I would brag about using proven, expensive detonation gun coatings.
> IMHO the ONLY reliable way of doing an all aluminum end housing IMHO.
>
> If the wear surface does not hold up on these Racing Beat aluminum
> end housing you could always have them detonation gun re coated
> with silicon carbide and diamond reground.
>
> Richard Sohn is also developing a two piece end housing with
> cast iron wear surface.
>
> Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
>
>
> Paul,
> Have you heard anything good about the process called Electrochemical
> Metallizing? I got this off the Swain web site
> (
http://www.swaintech.com/weld.html).
>
>
> Electrochemical Metallizing
> Metallizing is often used to describe wire flame spr-
> aying. The flame spraying process, however, should not be
confused with
> electro chemical metallizing, an out-of-tank plating process for
adding
> a metal coating to a metal substrate.
> Electrochemical metallizing is a technological br-
> eakthrough, an improvement over a process originally termed "brush
> plating". Thin (0.0001 in. to 0.01 in.) metallic coatings are
applied at
> low temperature. A dc power pack has two flexible leads. One goes
to the
> workpiece and the other connects to one of a number of working
tools or
> styli. Anodes of different sizes and shapes are connected to the
end of
> the stylus and wr-
> apped with an absorbent material. The covered anodes are dipped
into the
> plating solutions, or the solutions are pumped to the anodes when the
> areas to be coated are large.
> The positive lead from the dc power pack is connected to the work
tool
> and the negative lead is connected to the workpiece. An electrical
> circuit is completed when the wrapped tool and workpiece are brought
> close to one another, resulting in metal being deposited from the
liquid
> solution onto the metal base.
> More than 100 primary metals and alloys can be deposited by this
method,
> including nickel, copper, tungsten, cobalt, gold, silver, tin, zinc,
> Babbit, cad-
> mium, lead, and nickel-tungsten.
> Electrochemical metallizing applications include repairing damaged
> printed circuit boards, dented molds, scored or pitted hydraulic
rams,
> damaged pr-
> inting press rolls, and dented or cracked extrusion dies, and
resizing
> pins or gates. Electrochemical met-
> allizing is also used for military repairs, as it meets many military
> specifications for wear, corrosion, and resizing
>
>
> Years ago we used to use an oxy-acetylene torch setup to spray
powdered
> metal onto construction equipment wear surfaces such as backhoe
buckets.
> It was subjected to extraordinary conditions and survived. I haven't
> done anything along those lines since then. According to Swain Tech,
> the process has advanced considerably. I was wondering if this
could be
> an economical solution to the aluminum end housings?
> Mark Steitle
>
> One thou (.001) is not very thick.
> It might be but the big problem is different materials on aluminum.
> There is a temperature expansion difference to contend with.
> Detonation gun coating actually embeds the wear surface particles
into the
> aluminum as they impact the aluminum at super sonic velocities.
> The particle size can be varied to optimize the results. In a way
it is
> similar, (on a microscopic level) to the SIP process Mazda uses for
> rotor housings. There is a mechanical lock between the steel liner
> and the aluminum. It has been proven to work on aluminum end
housings by
> Mazda and others. Why risk anything else unless you are General
Motors,
> Ford, Mazda, Toyoto etc. etc. ? I don't know of anybody with the
$$$$$
> resources to
> test 500 engines for 500 hours each to see if something new works.
Paul: It has been many a year ago; but, when using aluminum pump
plates in
some transmissions, which, as I am sure you can guess didn't hold up too
well once a little metal got into the fluid, I solved the problem by
having
thin steel plates cut to fit. Why couldn't you do that with aluminum end
plates, especially in this day of cnc stuff?
jofarr, soddy tn
I am not sure what you mean but we discussed this awhile ago.
Here are some drawings and other stuff. The main hang up getting
any of this stuff tried is the casting patterns. If I went to a pattern
maker he would charge $5000 or more for each end housing.
If somebody has access to an NC machine shop I will design
the patterns and core boxes in Rhino and export them as iges for
a Solid Works file. From that... one could load it into Surfcam or some
such NC code generator and machine the patterns out of tooling board
or aluminum.
The easy way to do it is assume you are going to do a peripheral
port right
from the get go. That simplifies the end and center housings greatly.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
I concure with Paul, he'd do well to get the turbo- compounding device
for the engine working, and let someone else develop aluminum side
housings. We'd have a superlightweight, fuel efficient aircraft engine.
I look forward to the day that I can pull a working rotary engine out of
my airplane to upgrade it will aluminum side housings and perhaps
turbo-compounding.
Brian Trubee
I think Mazda will wake up one of these days and do it them selves.
Getting so cast iron engines are rare.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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