Free-piston Engine
An interesting variation on the opposed-piston engine is the free-piston engine, which was patented in 1934 by Raúl Pateras de Pescara. It has no crankshaft, and the pistons are returned after each firing stroke by compression and expansion of air in a separate cylinder. Early applications were for use as an air compressor or as a gas generator for a gas turbine, such as the Pratt & Whitney PT1 design. There is now renewed interest in it for powering vehicles by using it to drive a linear alternator.
Read more about this topic: Opposed-piston Engine
Famous quotes containing the word engine:
“The machine unmakes the man. Now that the machine is perfect, the engineer is nobody. Every new step in improving the engine restricts one more act of the engineer,—unteaches him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)