Paul

what will it take to make a composite bell housing?

Tony

Good idea.
A female mold and high temp epoxy.

As I recall the 2nd gen man tx bell weighed 7.5 pounds
so you should get a lot of pounds out of that.
Probably about to .125 wall thickness would be enough.
My guess is 13 plies of carbon cloth will do the job.
Vacuum bag would be wonderful.

You could sell them or rent the mold out to a composite
shop and let them make and sell them for you.
Carbon fiber would be required for the stiffness needed.
You need to embed some small aluminum spacers where the
bolts go so the composite is not crushed when the bolts
are tightened. You can buy spacers from McMaster car.

I'll do a sketch of the required spacers for you.

http://www.dragonplate.com/sections/technology.asp

.0956 oz per square inch for 13 plies (.124" thick) of carbon
fiber. You will need roughly 6" x 6" x 3.1416 = 113 square
inches for the front and 12" X 3.1416 X 3" deep = 113 square
inches for  the sides or 226 square inches times .0956 = 21.6 oz.
looks like 1.35 pounds. Add another pound for misc reinforcements.

It would be a significant weight savings.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

The Rotary Engine NewsLetter. Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. http://www.rotaryeng.net
Copyright 1998-2006 All world wide rights reserved.