Ratchet Piston Engine Design

Don't you have other things to do?

Don't you?

Since laughter is one of the best medicines, enjoying it and possibly inducing it are among the best things one can do.

"Laughter is the shortest distance between people" _{- with apologies to the late Victor Borge, self-appointed Clown Prince of Denmark.}

I see it this way!

Two people who are either too old to build anything and won't post a single thing they made because they themselves would be a laughing stock on these forums.

I fully understand the bully tactics, I would also add that people like you are making comments though out these forums because you can't even put up a single thing.

Why do you keep posting on my forum? Not only is your math skills is off, it was flat out wrong and got a D in my book.

Did you pay to get these skills? Making a simple mistake is one thing but you clowns act as experts.

I like to see what you clowns built, if you are going to bully people then you must be experts to show something you build by hand.

Everything I built was from myself, I love to see both of your work.

Be very careful when you bully someone, some people react different then others!

Lets see what you built experts.

If others want to build something and post it for peer review, then the correct vehicle for this is a different thread.

This thread, however, is about the <...Ratchet Piston Engine Design...>. Please keep this thread "on topic".

The poster to whom you replied hasn't furnished any calculations, so how dare you accuse him of mistakes? For that matter, what mistakes has anyone else but you made in any calculations? I hope your lies catch up to you before long.

<...him...>?

"Leave it out, George."

<...math skills is off, it was flat out wrong...>

Having scanned this thread several times it is proving difficult to see where any calculation is displayed that might attract comment, let alone critique.

The local optician's shop is closed at the moment owing to a virus outbreak. First impressions are that going there for an eye test won't make much of a difference.

"ABANDONED -- FAILURE TO PAY ISSUE FEE"

I am genuinely interested.

Please briefly explain the working principles and identify the numbers in your sketch.

Please summarize the patented features,as I do not wish to dig through then entire patent itself.

I will, I've been really busy with my business and will post it very soon.

PV=nRT will start there.....

So what?

Well, I can see how this is supposed to work but I doubt that even a functioning model to demonstrate the kinematics could be built let along a running prototype. However - my questions are (as ever)

1) what problem does it solve? And,

2) What new problems does it bring?

The basic issue that the inventor seems to be addressing is the reciprocating engine produces force on a piston constrained to move in a straight line when what we need is torque on a rotating shaft.This is conventionally solved using the familiar crank, con-rod and piston mechanism.

I think that he is trying to derive a more efficient mechanism for his power conversion mechanism, However, the device described still requires a con-rod and crank acting in parallel with the new geared arrangement. I guess that the inventor regards the con-rod/crank in his design as merely a "timing" device to define the end of the piston stroke whilst the gear train does the work.... But, what we have is redundancy - both a crank and rod mechanism and a gear train trying to dictate the piston position - hmmmm, a sense of forboding is developing!

Let's think about this for a moment and limit that thinking to one combustion chamber and one gear/sprag clutch assembly. Consider the piston moving towards TDC with the relevant sprag clutch over-running. The precise location of the piston at any moment will be a function of the con-rod mechanism only. If we are on the firing stroke then gas force will oppose inertia force and the direction of the force on the piston will depend on engine speed and load. If we are on the exhaust stroke then the con rod will be in tension, slowing the very heavy piston assembly down - so the inertia forces will be much higher than normal. As we pass over TDC and combustion pressures are building - rapidly and to a very high level - then the direction of piston motion changes and things start to happen in the gear train. As the piston starts to move in the other direction, back down the bore, first we take up the backlash between the rack and pinion (with the con-rod quite happily controlling how fast this happens), then we take up the backlash in the sprag clutch - which is significant and again, the con-rod is in command right up until the sprags engage. Those sprags will, indeed, engage - with a bang - but we will come back to that. Now the piston position is being dictated by two, parallel but independent mechanisms.

This would strike me as a Bad Idea at the best of times - but when those two mechanisms fundamentally disagree not only as to where the piston should be at any given instant but also its velocity, then it becomes a Very Bad Idea Indeed! As soon as the sprag clutch engages, then the piston is, in effect geared directly to the crank and the instantaneous velocity of the piston, as demanded by the geartrain becomes a simple function of crank speed and gear ratio - and will be constant as long as the sprag is engaged. The con-rod, however has a very different opinion and requires the piston to make the journey down the bore following a very non-linear instantaneous velocity pattern.

Therefore, from the moment the sprag engages, the two mechanisms will start a very enthusiastic fight for control with the sprag clutch engaging and disengaging violently all the way.

My diversion into considering gas pressures, power vs exhaust stroke etc was unnecessary as the kinematics cannot work whatever. However, even if there were not the kinematic disaster, my experience with over-run clutchs - be the roller or sprag, is that there are utterly unsuited for this sort of duty. I can decide whether the clutches would last for seconds or minutes at even a moderate engine speed.

So, if we go back to my questions:

1) The concept addresses a valid problem but does not solve it, let alone improve on existing solutions.

2) See above!

Incidentally, just as an interesting aside, because there is only one con-rod controlling a double ended piston, and ignoring all the mechanical issues, there would be a very interesting combustion result. The combustion in the two chambers would result n very different pressure:crank angle curves because the piston velocities around the two TDC's would be very significantly different.

Hello Camshaft,

To fully understand this design and why there is a crank shaft in the first place is to control the linear movement and avoid the pistons from crashing in the cylinder heads.

Like the Bourke engine design.

In other words, this is a concept of a air power linear drive motor that converts from TDC to BDC direct rotational mechanical work from left to right movement.

Yes I do have a prototype that runs on compress air.

This design has two gear racks that is set on each sprag gear as shown. The flywheel is on a separate bearing with a crank to control the linear pistons movement.

This is highly efficient due to the design.

The attorney was a jerk, didn't fully understand the design and wanted more money for a small part design of this patent. 5k was the deal, just like all attorneys that are greedy!

I plan to refile for the patent soon.

Tom

You have incorrectly identified who is the jerk in this scenario. Maybe a better lawyer will charge you $20k.

... and he wants to refile a patent that he's already released details of to the public?

It just doesn't work that way.

Mr Reed,

it would be interesting to see a video of your compressed air version. I would be interested to know how fast it has run in crank RPM. I suspect it has minimal effective flywheel inertia - which means that the flywheel instantaneous velocity can vary according to the crank and rod geometrical demand without causing the high torques reversals which will kill those over-running clutches.... Once you start making it representative of full sized componentry, things will become more difficult