New concept...for an engine

As a follow on to the thread on the 'coffin on wheels', the manufacturers of that 'bike' also have designed the new rotary engine.

A ball engine. Seems to me there would need to be a lot of sliding seals around the ball . I know, that the other rotary engine design (Wankel engine) used to have problems with the rotor seals, and have help change a mates car engine twice when he had one....thing it was Mazda.

Anyway here is a link to a video of the Superball engine

PERAVES


http://kugelmotor.peraves.ch/Bilder/Kugelmotor_engl.wmv

I LIKE it !! Very interesting design & with the materials & machining processes available today, I don't see that seals would be much of an issue. I'm somewhat familiar with the Mazda / Wankel rotary engine seal problems you referred to, but there are ways to solve those problems now & a sliding ball wouldn't wear like a rotor tip.

And one example I'm very familiar with is the rocking action of pistons, which especially in a Harley engine, wears cylinders out-of-round pretty quick. But I use a Teflon-like coating from Calico Coatings on the piston skirts which really cuts that down. The NASCAR boys use it too & there are several types of coatings including ceramic that are used on all kinds of moving parts to cut wear way down & ensure a good seal where necessary. The coatings will wear off eventually, but if the machine work is very, very precise to begin with, not for a very long time.

How is that Calico Coatings teflon coating get applied to the skirts? in the oil or before assembly?

Oh, it's not in the oil (that never worked), the particular coating is applied directly to the part before assembly:

ceramic coatings, teflon coatings, thermal coatings solutions with Calico Coatings

And in the case of pistons, before the cylinder is honed to final size, so the piston-to-wall clearance will be correct.

Nope & you'll still set the end gap the same as the manufacturer recommends. Personally, I like Total Seal rings - but - the cylinder honing better be perfect, as well as the valve guides & seals, 'cause the ring seal is so good that going down, the piston will suck oil right down the valve stems.