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Could someone explain to me what I'm looking at?

http://www.shepherdengine.com/our_technology/index.html

:confused: - Dale

A very clever bit of engineering. Gotta hand it to those Kiwis, they sure think outside the box.
Here's a you tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WN_ziute-c

ollie

That almost helped. :D Thanks ollie. - Dale

You're welcome!
Did you see where the engine revved up quite a bit? It almost levitated!! I know it's only a prototype but they better sort out those vibrations.

ollie

It's awfully rattly. And he evidently didn't read the "use only
in well-ventilated area" instructions...
.
_H*

I'm just thinking out loud here, correct me if I'm wrong.:

Wouldn't with this engine being bolted down solid like my car's engine is to the firewall and frame by the motor and transmission and it's mounts minimize the effects of the back and forth forces of the moving cylinders.

I understand harmonic balancers but this thing isn't smooth enough by design to even have the word harmonic attributed to it. It's like a constant tug of war of equal opposing explosive forces.

I mean as a first run it's pretty amazing. The next few steps would be to secure it and work out the suspension, the intake and exhaust issues.

How is the energy transferred by this motion to move something? Where is it's output.....ah....for lack of a better word, output shaft to be located?


This thing is intriguing to me by it's uniqueness. I don't want one put I can't stop looking at it. It's like a hairless cat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphynx_%28cat%29) Click it I dare you! :D - Dale

I thought I saw a belt looping the center of that contraption?

Yeah your right, that could be the starter belt or it could be the drive belt, either way that makes more sense.

And with multiple sizes of the outside diameter walls of this engine and/or the drive shaft you could use the spinning cylinder as it's own transmission or the drive shaft depending how you wanted to do it. Bigger diameter for higher gear, smaller for low gear. Balanced and belt driven to a drive axle you could loose the whole clutch and pressure plate system.

Use an air/vacuum actuated gear engagement so the unused gears are free spinning and the preferred gear is engaged by a pressurized multi-ball locking system that fixes the gear to the shaft. Vacuum would pull the balls out of the gear disengaging it and positive pressure would go to another gear engaging it. All of this could be powered from the compression and vacuum of the engine.

I understand it enough now to be dangerous, thanks! - Dale

I thought I saw a belt looping the center of that contraption?

Yep, there is a bicycle chain around the middle of the engine, going down to some sort of "load" beneath. At the end of the video the operator speaks of "all the power in and all the power out," so apparently some sort of efficiency measurements are being made.

It is pretty clear to this engineer that that this is just a first effort, probably just an effort to prove that the thing will run and produce power. Refinements, such as noise and vibration control aren't critical to the inventor at this point.

I am reminded of the Wankel engine development many years ago. There were lots of problems, including internal engine seals, which were eventually overcome. But the problem of poor FE was never fully overcome. The Shephard engine is interesting, but it is much too early to really say that it is promising. The underlying principles are interesting, but there may be an achilles heal.