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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: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Friday February 28 2014, @07:45PM
Come on guys, a subject of hmmmm just makes you look dumb. Don't type like you talk.
Wankel was a good try, but it still wasted a lot of energy, and emitted too much un-burned gas.
The problem was getting the porting just right wasn't feasible other than for a very limited range of RPM.
Frankly, this new air-operated system seems interesting, but the use of air is imprecise, and inefficient. Air is compressible, and about 30 percent of the power applied to air actuators (of just about any sort) goes to just compressing the air to working pressure. Then you have to vent that built up pressure when you want the valve to close again.
Hydraulic would seem much faster, and more precise way of moving the valve stem. Electric valving of the Hydraulic fluid would allow computer controlled adjustment for timing. Hydraulic chambers for both Raise and Lower could eliminate valve springs as well, meaning the engine wouldn't be wasting energy compressing a spring.
(Note: Hydraulic lifters as used today are simply a buffer between cam shafts and valve stems, so not the same thing).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.