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A four-stroke, air-cooled unit, it had seven cylinders and a variable compression ratio, altered by changing the wobble-plate angle and hence the length of piston stroke. [3] It was called a "rotary engine", because the entire engine rotated apart from the end casings. Ignition was supplied by a Bosch magneto directly driven from the cam gears.
The fixed plate is shown in gold and six shafts each take a reciprocating motion from points on the gold plate. The shafts might be connected to pistons in cylinders. Note the power may be coming from the shaft to drive the pistons as in a pump, or from the pistons to drive the shaft rotation as in an engine
An oscillating cylinder engine cannot be reversed by means of the valve linkage (as in a normal fixed cylinder) because there is none. Reversing of the engine can be achieved by reversing the steam connections between inlet and exhaust or, in the case of small engines, by shifting the trunnion pivot point so that the port in the cylinder lines up with a different pair of ports in the port face.
Many residential central heat pump and air conditioning systems and a few automotive air conditioning systems employ a scroll compressor instead of the more traditional rotary, reciprocating, and wobble-plate compressors. A scroll compressor operating in reverse is a scroll expander, and can generate mechanical work.
Cutaway side-view diagram of an axial piston pump 3-D rendering of an axial piston pump with the parts labeled Animation of an axial piston pump in operation. An axial piston pump has a number of pistons (usually an odd number) arranged in a circular array within a housing which is commonly referred to as a cylinder block, rotor or barrel.
A similar engine to the swashplate engine is the wobble plate engine, also known as nutator or Z-crank drive. This uses a bearing that purely nutates, rather than also rotating as for the swashplate. The wobble plate is separated from the output shaft by a rotary bearing. [2] Wobble plate engines are thus not cam engines.
Linear motion can come from either a diaphragm or piston actuator, while rotary motion is supplied by either a vane type air motor, piston air motor, air turbine or gear type motor. Pneumatic motors have existed in many forms over the past two centuries, ranging in size from hand-held motors to engines of up to several hundred horsepower.
The cam can be seen as a device that converts rotational motion to reciprocating (or sometimes oscillating) motion. [clarification needed] [3] A common example is the camshaft of an automobile, which takes the rotary motion of the engine and converts it into the reciprocating motion necessary to operate the intake and exhaust valves of the cylinders.