Micro Air Engine

Hi Folks,

After 4 or 5 prototypes :blush: i've finally managed to create a functioning Micro Air Engine.

https://www.shapeways.com/model/1047671/micro-air-engine.html ?li=my-models

The engine itself is just over an inch long and less than an inch tall. It is all held together using 1mm diameter screws and requires two 1x3x1mm ball bearings at the crankshaft and one 1x3x1mm bearing at the connecting rod for stable rotation of the engine.

Now that i have the basics down i will soon be creating multiple cylinder engines as well as different configurations such as V4/V8 etc etc, as well as different types of engine/turbines.

I'm currently in the process of creating full assembly instructions for the engine on my website. although it is fairly straightforward to assemble i think this is a necessity for customer satisfaction & support.

Here's a video of the engine functioning which a friend made for me,i hope you guys like it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eujQ1Jwab2E

Very good. I wonder what sort of sustained pressure would be needed to generate enough speed for a (light) model plane's propellor...?

I've no idea to be honest, although i'd imagine a different type of engine would be better. This type of engine is powered on one stroke only - the flywheels momentum is used to rotate the engine the other 180 degrees, so a CO2 engine or peltier turbine would probably suit that application better - i'll be working on them soon .

PFTE/Silicone lube works wonders with LEGO Pneumatics (~60% friction lost), should work ok with FD/FUD too.

Awesome job!

Mechanical,
Nice motor nice job, I really like the clear look. Did you post process the parts?
I printed a wobbler a while ago, I made mine square...piston, con-rod, crank-flys, flywheel all done square.
I used no bearings, nylon on nylon for the crank(pressed crank)/crank bearing surface and transparent for the cylinder. I used slotted ports for maximum duration(almost no need for a flywheel). On 20psi on air it turns around 1000rpms. I have had it running for around 5 mins at a time and have yet to see any scoring or galling. I have a video if your interested.

thanks for the look
bvr

Thanks shopforstuff, i must check that out .

Hi bvr,
I did have to do a little bit of post processing, the piston and cylinder have too much friction between them after production, i needed to just lap them a little bit with a fine grit compound.

Cool, send me/share the vid

Mechanical,

Here's the video.

bvr

square wobbler

Hi bvr,

It won't load for me?

Mechanical,

Try right clicking on the video and choose "view video"

bvr

Could be a URL problem - all I get is a 369 byte MOV file that appears to contain links to different versions
of your video for different bandwidth, but none of them gets opened automatically. If I grab one of the names
from the .mov (opened in a text editor) and prepend the URL where the sqwob.mov resides I can view it,
so perhaps the path info is missing in either the sqwob.mov or your webserver config ?

mkroeker,
That html file and assets are from "export for web" from quicktime It works on some machines/phones, I know with firefox, right clicking and choosing "view video" is the only way to view it. I really need to make a proper page for videos, but I don't do a lot of video.
bvr