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germanbird writes: "Jalopnik has an interesting article up about Koenigsegg's Prototype Camless Engine. The engine uses pneumatic actuators rather than a cam to open and close the valves in the engine. The engineers behind this claim that it can provide "30 percent more power and torque, and up to 50 percent better economy" when applied to an existing engine designs. The article and some of the comments also mention that some work has been done with electromagnetic actuators to accomplish the same task. It may be a while before this tech is mature enough for passenger vehicles, but maybe if a racing series or two picked it up, it might give some of the manufacturers the opportunity to work the bugs out?
Not sure this is on topic for SoylentNews, but the article brought me back to my introduction to engineering course in college. One of my classmates was a car nut and I remember a discussion with an EE professor one day about the potential (or actually lack thereof due to performance issues) for using electric actuators to open and close valves."
(Score: 1) by Kromagv0 on Friday February 28 2014, @02:38PM
The best thing the rotary engine has going for it is the higher specific output since it is much closer to a 2 stroke than a 4 stroke otto cycle engine. There was suppose to be some wonderful efficiency gains since there were so few moving parts but they typically have been over stated. Also add in the wear and premature failure of the carbon tips that has plagued Wankels from the beginning and it is a niche product. They are a nifty little engine none the less and I applaud Mazda for trying to perfect them.
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