25/08/2024
That's crazy cool...
The WANKEL engine
The WANKEL engine is an internal combustion engine that uses one or more triangular-shaped rotors instead of the pistons used in conventional reciprocating engines, 2T or 4T.
Unlike cylinder and piston engines that produce a reciprocating motion using the connecting rod/crank principle, the WANKEL rotary engine has a smoother operation, with less friction, less vibration and quieter.
Felix Wankel (1902-1988) was the creator of the rotary engine that is now named after him.
He was self-taught, the lack of academic training did not prevent him from being a designer of great value from a very young age.
In the 1930s he was arrested by the N***s, anyway after being released he still collaborated, during World War II, in the development of sealing systems and rotary valves for Luftwaffe planes, the German air force, and torpedoes for the Kriegsmarine, German navy.
In 1924 he conceived the rotary engine, his project was based on a structure of epicyclic movements of a rotor on an axis.
A tri-lobular rotor, a triangle with domed faces, rotating inside an oval-shaped hollow casing.
In his workshop in Heidelberg, with meticulousness and perseverance, Felix managed to overcome the first notable defect of his creation: durability.
In 1929 he issued two patent treaties: the first, on October 16, 1929, deals with the "compensation or balance of masses for gears, with masses moving in different directions"; in the second, of December 6, 1929, it proposes new load adjustments of the piston rings.
It obtained its first charter for the rotary engine on June 20, 1933.
In the rotary engine there are no masses that move in different directions.
Its biggest drawback is the sealing between the rotor lobes.
Wankel then obtains another patent, relating to special waterproofing for rotary distributors.
He moves to the city of Lahr, where he obtains funds to rent an empty factory in Lindam.
With just over 100 men working at the Techinische Entwicklungs Stelle, Technical Development Department, perfects the sealing system, until then the most vulnerable point of the project, to start series production.
At the end of the war, everything is confiscated by the Americans and the French.
Then he gets a contract with NSU to build a motorcycle engine on the rotary-piston principle.
On August 9, 1956, the "flying rocking chair", an aerodynamic motorcycle, conquered several world records in the 50 and 75 cm³ classes.
