Amazing: the Low Temperature Differential Stirling Engine

[Reid Welch]

Please click this link to see many more and varied videos:
http://www.stirlingengine.co.uk/ks80-solar-low-temperature-stirling-engine-456-p.asp

Here's the one I owned, and ran for over a year non-stop, under a glass dust-protection dome:
[youtube]ldN1xdS3iRA[/youtube]

reidsteam
December 06, 2007
Kit-assembled, Kontax KS90, running slowly for clarity of operation.

Please notice that the displacer, that white disk, has plenty clearance from the wall of the big, clear, "displacer" cylinder.

The displacer is passive; it simply stirs, moves, air from one plate-side of the container, warm here,
to the other plate, the top plate, cooler there, atop...making, thereby, an alternation of contained air =pressure=,
by which to push upon, and then "suck" upon, the tiny, power piston.

Its flywheel's two metal-sheilded (not sealed) ball bearings bear NO lubricant,
other than that which comes from atmospheric-borne 'film'.

So, the pressure in the displacer chamber alternates from high to low,
sufficiently-so, to make push and pull upon the closely-fitted,
frictionless, non-wearing, graphite power piston,
running at micron-clearance in a borosilicate, glass cylinder.
It would run for a century, if kept fed with "caloric".

It runs on ice, opposite direction, or it can run on the heat of a warm hand,
if the room air is cool.

Please notice that the displacer, which has plenty clearance from the big cylinder,
simply stirs, moves, smooshes, the air from the warmer deck to the cooler deck.

In this way the air in the displacer chamber is alternately heated and cooled.

So the pressure in the displacer chamber alternates from high to low,
sufficiently to make push and pull on the closely-fitted, frictionless, graphite power piston.
Thank you for rating,
Reid Welch

A year ago I gave this unit to my charity MD as a gift of gratitude.
It would run as slow as 40 rpm, or ten times faster. I like slower, myself.
___________________________

Would like to get another Kontax, but of another style, this new model,
the KS80, is only a bit over $100US, delivered, fast, direct from the maker, worldwide.

It is reliably claimed (I know the maker) to operate even "better" , being a "solar" powered machine.
Pure, forever-motion afforded by the light of a lamp or the sun, or on a cool counter top, or warm hand.

It's on my wish list. Hundred bucks. I like the new, clear spoke design and -no- brass pillars to tarnish from touching.
It is minimalism to the max. All C&C machined to the n'th degree of accuracy, both in the parts and the packing and instructions included.

Scale one up and make a solarbike? :wink:

Of course, the LTD Stirling in this size produces only a modicum of power;
enough to spin very slow, or up to about four hundred rpm (a guess)
Don't put one on the stovetop, OK? You'd melt the foam displacer, if not the polycarbonate base.

Even more the plus side, the Kontax models do not ever wear, nor need any lubrication.

For best results long term running (like for a century),
just keep the unit free from dust.

But, it will run in the open for years, with, at most, a wipe-off of the power piston,
easily removed by detaching one screw.

An optional glass dome and brass base that I sourced (discovered) for the makers (am not affiliated except as a friend),
is now available from them; a perfect fit and perfect protection for your LTD Kontax brand Stirling.

Things that tick and tock are fun to watch. This engine makes NO sound at all.
You can set it atop your computer or router to run it indefinitely.
It's very Zen-like, especially under glass.

 

[liveforphysics]

I love stirling engines Thank you for shareing your pics and vids with us.

We happen to have an expert in stirling engines on this board. He is the man who designed and created the stirling engines that use the decay of a radioactive element for a heat source, and a surface to radiate IR into space for the cold side. Because of his work, deep space probes have power sources for 100+ year lifespans of space exploration beyond the useful range of our sun's solar energy. He may even be the worlds foremost authority on stirlings.

 

[Reid Welch]

Thank you for enjoying. There's your friend here who knows...what can he tell us?

The high temperature differential Stirling is, perhaps, the most "green" engine of the future.

Kontax and others have made viable, powerful toy stirlings running by concentrated solar power.

And in outer space: I seem to recall that NASA has developed a super-power model?
Am fuzzy on all of this, beyond the very basics.

The history of the Stirling began before Mr. Stirling.
They were called "heat engines" It is the "regenerator" that made the heat engine
very much more viable, efficient. And these heat engines were put to real work in the nineteenth century,
for small horsepowers, to pump water or run small mills, etc. without the risk and maintenance of boilers and live steam.

Easy to find tons of old and new examples of the "Stirling" engine on YT.
Toy versions of the HTD type were made even pre-war, in Germany, for the toy market.
A Brit buddy of mine has one, very rare it is! I will look and fetch his video if I can find it:

[youtube]BKG1vLMDcAY[/youtube]
(by a virtual buddy of mine)

And another! These run HOT, though...the "LTD" engine was invented only about 20 years ago
[youtube]osKlHAo4Ox8[/youtube]

Cheers, Luke....and HELLO, Chris! We like you here!
Check out the entire line of Chris's KONTAX engines, of varied types, styles, all amazing and made
to quality standards never surpassed, ever, in this world's history.

 

[Reid Welch]

[youtube]nMi0HLmh2DI[/youtube]

reidsteam
January 08, 2008
What's a Weeden?
http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/ftopic8070-0-asc-0.php

It's a toy in every way but attitude:
a hot and dirty, spittle spewing, tinplate tantrum,
raring to go again, to make as much fuss as possible
whilst doing the least amount of work

imaginable...

...in other words,
it is so much like me,
I think we must be tin kin.

 

[liveforphysics]

That's no stirling

I have a little steam engine very similar to that one with the same little whistle on top. That guy overfilled the boiler for optimal whistle action. Just a little water in the bottom leaves lots of room to build and store high pressure steam. When I was a kido, I would poke 4 wicks down inside a tea-candle, light them all, and it would be just enough to get it going if would wrap the body of the boiler in a towel to insulate it, and set a quarter half way across the exhaust stack to slow the rate the warm air left it. It was one of my favorite toys as a kid, and I'm excited to give it to my kid. That will make it a 4th generation toy in my family

 

[Reid Welch]

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom

 

[chet]

i remember building one of these as a child. I did read that they were used as waterpumps in India.