Cicle cycle engine?

This looks interesting. Does anyone know about these?

http://www.circlecycleice.com/page9.php

Interesting idea. I would like to see how they keep the pistons lined up to the cylinders (or whatever they are calling them in that engine). Seems like a place for an awesome destruction to happen.

Just because it works in solidworks DOES NOT MEAN its going to work in real life.

I could only imagine the devastation when the pistons don't line up.

Yeah, anything even .0005 off = asplosion. Then there's the sealing problems, i.e. how ya gonna compress the rings every 'insertion' cycle? Not worth it IMHO.

Now if there were only 1 cylinder per side and the 'piston' never left the 'cylinder', they might have something. Something sort of like the old steam locomotives used.

Pic of an engine on the bench:

I can sorta see how they could keep the intake air coming through the 'piston' (compressed and forced through valves in the center), but how would the exhaust gases be controlled? The only way I can see is to enclose the whole mess then use some sort of scavenging air pump to suck out burned gases. To me that indicates the need for both a compressor (to push fresh air in) and a scavenge pump (to pull burned gases out). There goes a big chunk of efficiency.

I saw it on the Kneeslider the other day. It's truly fascinating despite the obvious impracticality and potential for catastrophic failure. It won't go anywhere, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth doing just as a thought exercise.

They have a video of one running on propane. So it does actually run.

It looks neat but the skeptic in me can't help but suspect the "Propane Powered" video is in reality an electric powered video, i.e. the starter.

Can I get a throttle blip?

I design stuff for a living. From concept through experiments, proof of concept, prototype, betatype, design for manufacture, documentation and manufacturing hand off.

This is precisely the sort of "masturbation by 3D CAD" that I see every day. Just because ~it's possible~ to construct the CAD model, extrapolate the drawings, and find someone witless enough to bankroll the staggering budget for CNC machining and exotic materials does not mean that it's worth the effort.

The fundamental absence of basic common sense is a common factor in these endeavors.

I'll relate the following anecdote not as self promotion, but to illustrate something about how this stuff happens:

At SolidWorks world a few years ago a product I designed was displayed in the "product design showcase"; a solar panel mounting system for large scale commercial rooftop applications. It's made of light gauge Galvalume steel and is shipped in cubes of knocked-down pre-assemblies that fold open and are pop riveted together. Each unit gets 5 rivets total including retention of the solar PV module. It's saved the company for which it was designed something on the order of 15 million dollars over a 3 year period. It was all but invisible to the crowd.

Nearby was a model of a flying car. It had consumed hundreds of thousands of dollars of venture capital, had yet to fly, and if it did fly, would cost more than an airplane and a car, and would still not be very good at flying or driving, and be serving the non-existent flying car market that every previous flying car has failed to penetrate.

They were mobbed all day, every day. People would come by and look at the Delta Rack and now and then someone - usually a crusty old design engineer - would really scrutinize it and say, essentially "I see what you did there..." but they were few and far between.

In reply to motomoron:

I sell knives. Kabar and eye candy. There kids always look at the eye candy ones. Funny how that works. The nice E36 M3 gets overlooked.

Fancy yes, worth a E36 M3? Probably not.

What's wrong with Kabar?

Power/volume seems rather abysmal. That is a very large engine spacewise, that will never be able to make that much power.

"In CC version 4 the pressure sealing ring lubrication is accomplished by a direct feed line from the gearbox. This eliminates the need to add lubricating oil into the fuel as is typical with other two cycle engines and results in a much cleaner exhaust."

It also has a nice Lubricant-Burn/Loss system like a 2 stroke.

....Brilliant.