* Alfonso wrote:
> Sorry for my ignorance, but, what is a charge-cooled engine?
When talking about engines, the "charge" is the fuel & air mixture. A
"charge cooled" engine draws the fuel & air mixture through the innards
of the engine, allowing the fuel evaporation cooling effect to cool the
engine. One (of the many) downsides of this is that the charge density
is reduced. More charge density means more potential power (this is
what turbochargers accomplish), so a reduction in charge density means a
reduction in the potential power output by the engine.
Regards,
Russell Kent
The key reason for "charge cooling" is simplification. Russel is correct of
course, that by cooling the rotor the charge gets warmer and less dense
reducing somewhat the mep (mean effective pressure) and therewith power
output. Charge mixing gets a bit better. For small engines, and only there
it is being used, an oil pump, oil pan oil storage and oil changes are being
avoided and only the housings are air cooled. Since the Rotary is smaller to
begin with, a little less power and lower efficiency seems tolerable for
less parts, simplification and expectedly more reliability.
Regards
Rolf Pfeiffer
This is very true. Also the loss in power and "efficiency" is compensated
for by the savings in weight of the parts not required.
George Payne
Are your small German engine rotor housings steel lined now George?
Paul Lamar
* No. At the moment they are still being built the "old" way. We're looking
into updating the technology. But the engines are fine the way they were
built. The LOCR engines are aluminum with the steel lining.
* George
We all knew that since the LOCR engines are Mazda engines.
All Mazda rotary engines have aluminum rotor housings with
steel liners.
The small German engines were not fine the way they were built.
I have first hand knowledge of the Nikasil coating flaking off the
inside of the rotor housings. If they were fine Wankel Gmbh
would still be in business.
You need to clarify that on your web site.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
--------------------------------------------------------
Paul, Wankel GmbH went out of business due to their business acumen (or lack
thereof). Jurgen Bax would not listen to our advice about setting up a
dealer network, to provide service and parts. As I said, we're investigating
options besides Nikasil coatings for our production here.
George
------------------------------------------
Well then you are not ready to ship. In this day an age
with UPS, FED X and the Internet you don't need a dealer network.
That is just another middle man to jack up the price.
Unless of course you are using that to fund your operations.
Your initial volume won't be high enough anyway to justify
dealers. They have to make money too. It will take years
to gain acceptance for an ultralight rotary engine.
Are you prepared to stick it out for five to ten years?
Pilots, as a whole, are a very conservative bunch.
We have seen that in the acceptance of the Mazda rotary
aircraft engine in the last seven year history of this
newsletter. It is progressing at 1/10th of what I thought
it would progress seven years ago.
I also see a problem for you looming in the immediate
future. People want plug and play firewall forward packages
complete with cooling. I don't see that on your web site.
Eggenfellner did it right with the Soob. He focused on the
very popular RV series airplanes with a firewall forward package.
It appears you are going off in all directions at once.
Boats, gen sets, airplanes, etc., etc..
You will need a staff of engineers developing all sorts
of applications. Boats are not the same as airplanes or
gen sets.
I suggest you focus on the ultralight aircraft market
first as that is where the superior power to weight ratio
of the rotary pays off big time and fuel consumption
is not an issue. It is going to take some spectacular PR
moves to make an impression. You have a lot of established
competition in the Mazda aircraft engine market.
Another high volume potential market
is gen sets but unless you are bucks up I don't think
you can do both. In the second case you are going head
to head with Honda. Good luck on that one.
Doing what you are doing is going to take BIG bucks indeed.
I hope you have them and wish you luck.
BTW do you have a booth at OSH this year?
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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