Vane Rotary Engine (Scissors Action Engine)

This is the first ever actually WORKING internal combustion engine that uses vanes in a so called cat-and-mouse motion. It is also known as scissors action engine/mechanism.
There have been many attempts to create such engine (starting with Stephenson who created the first steam locomotive), but all of them failed. There are many challenges that have to be overcome in order to create a real working engine of this type. To name a few: sealing, thermal management, stresses in bearings and stresses in the cranking mechanism.
Many computer models do exist, and many nice computer generated animations, but except for the design featured in this video, none has actually worked. The only mechanism of this type that have been known to work, are compressors.
What is unique in the design shown in the video, apart for the fact that it works, is its patented cranking mechanism. It is presently the simplest mechanism capable of generating cat-and-mouse motion of vanes. Thanks to its internal-external gear arrangement, the stresses in the gears are lower than those in alternative mechanisms that usually use external-external gear arrangements with multiple sets of gears.
There are other unique features in this design, to many however to discuss in greater details here.
I hope you find this video and the engine interesting!

[@kodeshian1]

Very elegant design, should be capable of very high output from a small package, excellent work

[@stephenkeebler732]

DEC, I was involved with a project very similar to this engine which was patented in the early '90s. What we did though was take the telescoping concentric piston drive tubes and mount a scotch yoke on each end. A double throw crankshaft was used to drive the scotch yokes. By doing this, we forced the piston sets to oscillate forwards and back together, their forces canceling each other out, eliminating vibrations, very smooth. We took the output from the crank and literally spun the combined cylinder head/block. Doing this self cooled the cylinders and by self supercharged the induction charge, by using the centrifugal force of the spinning assembly. Single carburetor worked fine because of constant draw through it. Two sparkplugs, eight pistons, ~10:1 compression. ~20:1 air/fuel ratio. Engine weight 40lbs. 30 cubic inches, 120 hp. Idled at 150 rpm, peaked at 5000 because of small diameter carburetor. Torque curve nearly flat from just beyond idle to peak rpm. This engine was developed from an engine he patented in late '69 that used two connecting rods instead of scotch yokes in the newer patent. The patent, which is now defunct because its now over 20 years, is USPTO 5,203,287, Inventer - Bruce C Wiley. As is usual, in the final stages of development, a legal battle took place, power plays among Partners happened (big money makes sharks smell the blood in the water) and a large development group with deap R&D pockets waved $6.5 million in the air and wouldn't you know it, we were told " Thank you all for your services and dedication, but, you are no longer needed on this: We will take it from here!" DEC, don't give up on your concept, you were getting very close with it! Like I learned, don't give up on your 'Day Job', but keep the dreams and ambitions alive! All it takes, is for the right combination of Ideas, Perspiration, and sometimes Help, and things can happen! Good luck to you...

[@wowalamoiz9489]

Why don't you publish your work somewhere?

[@laurnsmith59]

The looks like a design by T.A. Smith several years ago. The piston action is the same, but the phaser mechanism is different. Glad to see someone finally finished the development. We only got as far as a compressor.

[@dectechnologies1129]

Well, the cat and mouse concept of how pistons move is about a... 100 years old, so it is hard to say it's Smith's. Most predecessors used bulky external gear arrangements, or cams, or hard to manufacture elliptical gears. The secret as usual is in the details. The engine featured in this video is the first one ever that actually run as an IC engine. It is the load in the external gears of other designs, load in the bearings, and of course the SEALING that make this task so incredibility difficult. I would not say that I have finished the development. I only made it run. I think someone else will have to carry on with development... That's not a task for a single person.

[@dectechnologies1129]

Bernie - the design is patented and the patent is active. Patent number at the end of the video.. The engine in principle is similar to the MYT, so is MYT similar to countless other designs dating back 1829. What sets my engine apart from MYT and from all other designs is the cranking mechanism which you are referring to as a cylinder timing mechanism. Mine is much simpler and subjected to lower stresses than most. Until this very engine - no one, not even MYT made its engine run as an internal combustion engine. Also to the best of my knowledge the Russian engine is nothing but a computer animation, never made to run as an IC engine. In view of this, the information in Wikipedia under "swing piston rotary engines" is so far from reality that it's hard to believe that it has been published. Wikipedia suggests that the engines it references actually work as IC engines, and provide all those benefits... I am not trying to commercialize the engine. The resources available to me do not allow for that. Instead I focused on improving the Wankel engine which I will soon offer for sale. I was able to do that thanks to all the work I've done with my rotary engine - especially its sealing system. There are three reasons no one has commercialized the swing piston or cat-and-mouse designs as Internal Combustion Engines. Or even succeeded in making them run. Number one reason is sealing. Sealing of this engine is a tremendous challenge. Large number of blow-by points, or complicated sealing if this number is reduced. Number two are the stresses in the cranking mechanism. The mechanisms that use external gears practically stand no chance of operating at high speed for thousands of hours required by most applications. This applies to their bearings as well. If the mechanisms are made large to withstand stresses, they become bulky, requiring large size bearings which bearings cannot operate at high speeds... a ketch 22. This is why I focused so much on inventing a different cranking mechanism. Only those who actually did analysis of this engine appreciate what difference a cranking mechanism makes. Lastly - cooling and lubrication. The automotive emission requirements present a challenge for lubrication. I think putting all three challenges together explains why there's been so little progress so far. Anything can be commercialized, it's just a matter of resources.

[@aggabus]

andrew dec Aggabuss@gmail

[@aggabus]

Thank you Mr Andrew

[@dectechnologies1129]

Mohamulator - this happens all the time. You have no idea how many times it happened to me. This is why I hate patents. Most engineers can invent anything that they need without looking at other people patents. In this case however the idea alone is nothing. This idea is simple in principle but extremely difficult to change it into a working thing. Just the cranking mechanism - most people before me were using complicated and highly stressed mechanisms. My mechanism is very simple and this changes a lot. However the sealing... Sealing this engine is such a challenge that it's hard to believe. If you are not ready to spend years developing just the sealing system, don't even start. If you however are determined to develop your own cat-and-mouse engine good luck to you and let me know of your progress.

[@dectechnologies1129]

Thanks Deserat - muffler was the least of my problems so I did not spend time on making one. I used a leftover stainless steel muffler from a small Webasto automotive fuel fired heater. I'm sure they are available. PS. The only reason for this thick smoke coming from that muffler is that I added a lot of oil to the fuel, to show that the engine really works.

[@traxfish]

+andrew dec Does it need the oil to seal and lubricate like the Wankel engine does?

[@dectechnologies1129]

Thank you all. Below is my answer to your latest comments: 1. Rayan: Gigadron has a different cranking mechanism that uses external gears known to be highly stressed under load. The vane arrangement is not the same, and it works as a pump only. 2. Rajvir: the patent number is featured at the end of this KZbin presentation. Do not feel bad that you did not make your engine work - it is extremely difficult, especially the sealing. The cat-and-mouse concept was tried for about a hundred years but no one managed to make it work as an internal combustion engine. Even Stephenson who built the first steam locomotive didn't succeed. This one is the first ever. It took several years of development to go from compressor to internal combustion engine. 3. Юрий: this is not an electric motor - this is a generator. This rotary engine powers a generator. If you think the engine does not work look closely how engine speed changes when I adjust the carburetor throttle. To show that it works I added a lot of oil to fuel to make the exhaust “smoky”. Normally it does not need that much oil but you would not see the exhaust. I agree however that ALL OTHER engines of this type that are on KZbin do NOT work. They are primarly computer animations. All of them use well-known cranking mechanisem that is large and highly stressed under engine operating conditions. 4. Seekerone: is it noisy? Just like any other internal combustion engine. No difference here.

[@deserat0215]

Absolutely Amazing !!!! beautiful machine work and a true understanding of the vane engine concept. Can you tell me please, did you manufacture the muffler or is it something one can purchase?

[@innamanjoubert9881]

I love this engine man!The brilliant timing crank mechanism acts as a one-way slip differential enabling angular momentum in the direction of rotation(combustion). Farking awesome!It would have to be more efficient than pistons changing momentum rapidly in IEC and therefore this puppy should probably redline at 50k rpm?

[@TheBaconWizard]

This is fascinating.. I would love to know more. Performance stats etc.

[@jabadahut50]

very interesting though i'm not sure how this engine generates smooth output would it not be jerky and require a ratchet flywheel? I'm sure you thought of that and that's what those other mechanisms are for but i'm not quite sure I understand them.

[@CZ350tuner]

This needs to be put into a motorcycle next. Looking at the test motor, perhaps removing the crank, crank bay & cylinders from a side split encased 2 stroke motor (a Jawa 350 springs to mind) and replacing the crank with this new motor would provide an existing transmission and road legal motorcycle test bed. A friend replaced the crank on a Jawa 350 motor with an electric motor for an electric motorcycle project.

[@superhotbm]

Very nice.

[@bernie9963]

AndrewWhat is the status of your patented vane rotary engine?I am assuming that it is still in the development stage?What are the remaining challenges to solve to commercialize the engine?It looks like your engine is similar to the MYT engine based on the cylinder timing mechanism.Bernie

[@MarkManuel15]

Good luck in the CAD exam tomorrow everyone !!!

[@filipeteixeira8671]

hi! Nice work! do you have any experimental evaluation report of this engine? Leaking, pressure peak, thermal efficiency, torque, potency, anything?

[@dectechnologies1129]

Filipe Teixeira - No, no data. Just theoretical calculations and a standard compression pressure test - no different than in a piston engine. I was building a much larger engine for dyno testing but due to a lack of interest and funding I switched into a different project. Great potential though...

[@fernandoc.grandoli6254]

@@dectechnologies1129 What's the best approach to get funds to develop a prototype of an internal combustion engine? Any advice? Thanks!

[@aggabus]

how get lube ?tween yellow blue

[@CZ350tuner]

Stephenson did not create the first steam locomotive. This is attributed to Trevithick. Stephenson came up with the chuffing mechanism & fire tubes through the boiler.

[@farhadshiralizadeh5079]

It's wonderful, however I have a question about it's working mechanism; When the fuel is ignited between two blades, the generated pressure push both of them in opposite directions, that cause the shaft turns in two opposite directions. so how can you describe this process?

[@dectechnologies1129]

Just like a gas turbine where pressure acts both on the compressor blades and on the turbine blades yet the net result is high power output. What generates driving force in this engine is the torque differential that comes from either blade, not the pressure force that acts on those blades. Pressure is the same as you noted. However blades are connected to the shaft through crank arms and short connecting rods. It is the geometry of the connecting rods during each power stroke that generates uneven torque in both directions. The difference between those torques drives the output shaft. During compression stroke the situation is reversed, but it takes less power to compress the charge - just like in a reciprocating engine. I this engine while compression takes place, one set of vanes executes a power stroke. This way a flywheel can be very light.

[@cshaf5384]

Andrew. Are you still working on this? will the engine still run? where are you located?Very nice work.

[@GnossienneDeBaffi]

Does it burn oil by design ?

[@user-ep4qy3gi3d]

For what there electric motor?

[@lnwolf41]

Is there a device that stops it from going back wards?, or is it relying on the forward momentum?

[@dectechnologies1129]

No stopping device needed. Forward momentum, just like a normal piston engine. It is almost the same principle. Combustion pressure is higher than the compression pressure during compression stroke. 4 strokes per revolution makes it quite smooth - just like an 8 cylinder 4 stroke.

[@DevasionX]

+andrew dec so when you would turn the axle by hand the mechanism will make the "pistons" go in the same way as they would when the engine runs? its not some sort of free floating

[@mechanicaldesign4897]

perfect

[@rajvirsingh4828]

sir have you taken patent for this engine? I did the same work on this type engine. But due to a civil engineer i could not prepare a working model. Anyway congratulation.

[@bbelldfxa]

By comparison to a reciprocating piston engine, how much power does it produce and is it more efficient in terms of "gas mileage" so to speak?

[@dectechnologies1129]

At this point it would be theoretical only. I did not have the necessary funds to build more prototypes and thoroughly test them on dyno. It is safe to say though, that for a given displacement the power is similar to a reciprocating engine while being much much smaller. The same principles apply to this engine and to reciprocating engines, so the main contributors to higher or lower fuel consumption are frictional loses in either engine, and combustion processes (shape of combustion chamber for instance). At this stage of development I would see it as a good candidate for applications that traditionally operate at low rpm, such as synchronous speed electric power generators. Further work and development is still needed as only two prototypes have ever been built and run.

[@bbelldfxa]

andrew dec Thank you for the reply. Do you think this would work in a high performance car?

[@dectechnologies1129]

Bbell DFXA In the future - perhaps. At present not likely. It would take much more development to make it a performance engine. However it depends on how you look at it. Currently the design is great for developing large torque at lower rpms. So all the applications that must run at low to medium speeds would benefit from it. This is why I mentioned generators, marine engines, trucks etc. However, if one is not limited by displacement, one could use an engine of this design with much larger displacement than reciprocating engines. This could offset the necessity to run engine at high rpm in order to develop high peek power, while still allowing for smaller package and lower weight. As for the gas mileage, I forgot to mention that there is potential for significant reduction in fuel consumption in a spark ignited version. This engine, without changing anything or adding a single component can run in a "displacement on demand mode". Because of many cycles per revolution, power output can be regulated to large extend by skipping fuel injection to some "cylinders" rather then by throttling the engine. All this with a single fuel injector. This in itself improves thermal efficiency and typically yields up to 20% lower fuel consumption. If most of the operation happens at partial loads, the gain can be even higher.

[@martianshoes]

To my mind the future lies with small, momentum efficient engines...that will likely be the generator portion of several generations of hybrids. The engine would have to be able to be durable for the long sustained periods of upper power curve operation creating electricity. But hey, that is just me.

[@garyhoward4064]

It would be good that you film one step further back to show the entire engine running so as to demonstrate that it is running independently, else one may think that it is driven by an electric engine on the right side..

[@dectechnologies1129]

Located in Michigan. Currently I am developing a Wankel engine with several improvements to its sealing and scavenging. All activities on the scissors engine have been suspended.

[@aggabus]

suspended oh no.. I in livonia michigan

[@aggabus]

look at that 3 hours difference..(this commie from fall 16

[@aggabus]

andrew dec ....i commented livonia three hour after your Michigan comment.. November 2016... i failed to give contact..which i saw 3 months after you posted request...look like those needle bearings take considerable friction

[@aggabus]

I see my 8 yr comment.. And Mr A responded.. That was 2016

[@VGHCX]

The scissor engine concept is nothing new. The reason they are unreliable is the incredible friction caused by the rotating mass and most importantly the inability to seal the chambers from one another. It has been 9 year. What is the status? Update please.

[@aggabus]

Smokey no? What hp. Compressor, pump,expander.

[@dectechnologies1129]

Smoke is only for the show, so you can see it is really running. HP - whatever you design and make. This one is 75cc of displacement. Compressor, pump, expander - sure - several were made as compressors and pneumatic motors.

[@bryanagabashian1936]

Exhaust appears cloudy,aye

[@dectechnologies1129]

It was only to show that it really works. Perhaps I went a bit too far :)

[@andypughtube]

The eccentric drive system is really nice. The motion looks a lot like that from non-circular gears (example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iqHafqypd5qqqLM but youtube is full of them). Your solution has no backlash, though, which might be a big advantage for an engine. Does the engine design see torque reversals in the phasing gear?

[@rd9831]

fantastic but probably very noisy

[@aggabus]

this sound like big motor cycle eng

[@alterbart7916]

I understand the desire to put vanes into rotor, but I do not understand why they need to be rotating? They can oscillate instead. You'd have the same masses same balances, same sealing problems, but you would not have that terribly complex (and therefore, unreliable) drive mechanism and overheating problems! The mechanism can be replaced with two cranks... You'd be even able to implement valves and resolve issue with pre-mixture requirements.

[@aggabus]

may 2017..apprx .39k vwz

[@torukmacto4879]

Sieht ja alles gut und schön aus. Zu kompliziert. Nicht alltagstauglich. Zu viele Abgase... Lasse Das Vieh mal eine Woche im Dauerbetrieb laufen. Mal sehen was passiert...

[@dectechnologies1129]

Abgase sollen zeigen, dass es funktioniert. Normalerweise können Sie keine Abgase sehen. Es funktionierte für mehrere Wochen ohne Probleme.

[@aggabus]

starrotor...reggi...myt... Russ vane...

[@garyhoward4064]

Dec, I wrote to you 3 years ago but you did not reply. There are investors in my community willing to invest in this engine because all math models conclude that it should deliver (much) higher torque and power than classic combustion, in particular if you can increase acceleration of the scissors between them. I worked on one of these with a colleague, but it remained a prototype with a novel crank type. It never actually run without an add-on power plant. Besides, it would have had high stress on the crank. Meanwhile and as a side note, I would like to suggest respectfully that you redo your video and zoom out slightly. You would trigger conviction from some suspicious viewers. I gather you are no longer working on that engine but there are other people eager to take it to next step and finance it.

[@dectechnologies1129]

Please email me at: [e-mail] You are correct - I monitor this channel very seldom.

[@aggabus]

gigadron like..

[@aggabus]

rotax...liquid piston...

[@dectechnologies1129]

Rayan - I'll contact you if you give me your contact. Thanks

[@aggabus]

andrew dec .... [e-mail]

[@aggabus]

andrew dec...

[@aggabus]

andrew dec ...i missed you comment by three hours 5months ago

[@filipinagarcia2076]

Sea power 💪🌊🤞🔩🚬

[@creativityworld6781]

I have a better idea for building up a new rotary engine but I dont have a workshop or tools

[@cliffcampbell8827]

It's not a 4 stroke engine. It has the 4 actions of a 4 stroke (intake, compression, combustion, exhaust) but it's not a 4 stroke I.C.E. It's more like a 4 continuous cycle I.C.E. This is a very interesting concept but I don't think it will catch on.

[@alterbart7916]

yes it is for stroke. Check the PV diagram. Otto.

[@user-ep4qy3gi3d]

WITHOUTE ELECTRIC MOTOR DOES NOT WORK. NOT FOR LIFE.

[@vladshapoval767]

The design is completely stupid!

[@bernie9963]

Andrew What is the status of your patented vane rotary engine?I am assuming that it is still in the development stage?What are the remaining challenges to solve to commercialize the engine?It looks like your engine is similar to the MYT engine based on the cylinder timing mechanism.Bernie