Join the Revolution

aka Highspeedhijinks

Everyone here’s familiar with the basic types of internal combustion engines. Most of us own V-block or inline powerplants, and of course some of you Subaru guys run those famous horizontally-opposed boxers. Personally, I always thought Mazda’s old rotary engine was the coolest thing going–that is, until I heard about this. Meet the Rotoblock, an "oscillating piston engine" which uses four pairs of pistons in a round cylinder block, and promises decreased complexity and increased efficiency. Confused about how such a thing might work? I was too. Luckily, the Rotoblock site provides animations and this crazy video to help you make sense of the concept. What do you think? Engine of the future, or over engineered mess?

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Posted at 6:54 pm in Concept, Cool Products, Guest Blogger, Rotary, Rotoblock

Comments

Stewart
Feb 13, 2008 at 7:11 pm

I just watched the video too.
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They should film another video in the dark, so we could really see the sparks fly…
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Also, play the song “Round & Round” by Ratt!
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Seriously though, this is really interesting.
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If it’s efficient, powerful, and reliable, they might have a winner!

Anonymous
Feb 13, 2008 at 4:51 pm

I was thinking radial engine also. Definate difference. Why the complication, where is the gain?

Ernie
Feb 13, 2008 at 4:09 am

That’s awesome!
(I saw those sparks too, Evan)

Ted
Feb 13, 2008 at 1:57 am

It’s not a radial engine as in older planes, although radials are great too. This looks very promising and ingenious. Each spark and fuel ignition mixture drives two pistons instead of just one, meaning more power is probably transfered from the combustion into torque.
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I wonder how many RPMs these things are capable of. They must run extremely smooth and I suspect they have good low-end torque.
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The real question is how efficient are they? If they’re not much or any more efficient than their conventional counterparts, I don’t think this type of engine will go anywhere. The more time goes on, the more the quest for new powerplants will move AWAY from internal combustion…

Corona
Feb 12, 2008 at 10:54 pm

Sorry forgot to add my name on the last post. That is an excellent find, I’ll have to be sure to confuse the stuffing out of all my friends.

Anonymous
Feb 12, 2008 at 10:49 pm

Wow this is like reinventing the wheel as a combustion engine. That is extremely impressive though I’m worried about engine failure with all that rotating mass. The sparks are probably from the ignition cycle as the websites said the tests were preformed under the engines own power.

Evan
Feb 12, 2008 at 8:04 pm

That almost looks like it’s around the same idea as an airplane engine. Is it just me or does anyone else see sparks in that crazy video?