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What happned to the Australian Sarich engine?
Asked by anonymous -
This question can also be asked as:
Orbital internal-combustion?
Highest Rated Answer
Orbital engine - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_engine
Technical problems
The Sarich Orbital engine has a number of fundamental, unsolved problems that have helped keep it from becoming a practical engine. Amongst these are key components that cannot be cooled and others that cannot readily be lubricated. It is very susceptible to overheating. At one press conference where Ralph Sarich presented the engine, automotive engineer Phil Irving (designer of Vincent Motorcyle and Brabham Formula One engines) pointed out a number of technical reasons why the engine would not work (eg, excessive pressure in contact areas).
Political problems?
A conspiracy theory known to almost all mechanically-inclined Australians holds that the patent for the Sarich Orbital engine was exclusively licensed and then suppressed by Ford, perhaps in order to prevent a drop in oil prices, or simply to maintain the value of existing manufacturing facilities, should the highly efficient engine displace conventional piston engines.
More widely, the case is seen as a defining example of a syndrome of 'good invention, poor development' felt by many nations, with an unusually high number of good inventions becoming successful products only once they have been moved off-shore, and with economic returns on them not being returned to the nation's economy.
It needs to be noted that novel engine types are conceived in very great numbers, but overcoming the technical difficulties of producing an impressive prototype is exceedingly rare, even where investment substantially exceeds the cost of machining and assembling components. In other words, novel designs tend to be incomplete designs.
Comments
The engine itself does work, and is in fact surprisingly durable, it met all of the requirements of those that took out lisenses on it, however its bugbear is it is expensive to machine, however things that were noticed as being very interesting during the testing of the orbital motor have been utilised in injection tecnology which allows conventional, and some two stroke designs to benefit by running far leaner than usual mixtures, thus saving fuel and reducing NOx emissions
The orbital engine was invented in 1972 by Ralph Sarich, an engineer from Perth, Australia. from wikipedia
Other Answers
its still there...
www.websearch.com.au
Comments
Thank you for answering my question about the Sarich Engine. Thanks also for pointing me in the direction of other similar prototype engines under development. Add 3 stars!!! Frances 14 November 2008
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now used in mercury outboard motors.