Winter reading, viewing axial engine

[ericheath]

interesting concept.

[Brant]

helped ya out with a little edit.. ...yes interesting indeed.

[Old Fogey]

It appears to be an advanced version of the squash plate design that has been around for years. These older designs always had very high friction losses and were generally viewed as steady (or single) speed units for driving generators and the like. Good to see someone doing what seems to be real progress on an alternative to the normal four stroke engine.
Their problem will be the usual one for anyone coming up with something new - getting it accepted as a viable proposition by the end user such as the car manufacturers. And the general public aren't exactly known for rushing to buy something revolutionary either!

[mcgovern61]

Want to hear it run? Go here....

http://www.dukeengines.com/

This is an engine worth watching for. Commercial companies are watching closely!

[NCScooter]

I'm not an engineer and I will try to maintain an open mind, but I'd like to know if the fewer moving parts, specifically those ball joint looking things, have good longevity? The rotating cylinders would be another area I'd wonder about. Why didn't the Wankel catch on?

Cool video though!

[Old Fogey]

The 'ball joint looking things' were where the first of these designs fell down, due to the huge frictional losses. This company seems to be on top of that though.
Same with the seals. Sealing sliding cylinders to a static head against combustion pressures is never going to be easy, but according to their blurb, they seem to on it.
The original Wankel engine killed NSU as a company. Their Ro80 sedan was a beautiful thing, but the rotor tip sealing problems they found broke them financially. The company became part of the VW/Audi conglomerate. I believe VW made a few versions but eventually gave up and sold the patent to Mazda.
Mazda persevered with it right up to around 2012 but the engine always had fueling problems, very high exhaust temperatures and high exhaust emissions which was the nail in the coffin when the latest Euro emission regs came into force.

[Oldewing]

those early Mazda rotary's where neat. Had one on a test bench at school (mid 70's) it would spin to 16000 no problem, sounded VERY mad...

[Casper]

Neat idea, I have seen a bit before on that engine type, but it does look like they are making progress on the technical problems with the design. The wife had an early 70s Mazda RX-3, it was cool little car. Until one day in a parkade someone lost control and ended up landing right on top of it from an upper level. She was not in the car, but we she came back it was about 12" shorter.