ENRESO WORLD - ILab Knight Engine

Istas René Graduated in Automotive Technlogies 8-10-2018

Charles Yale Knight

Inventor of the Knight Engine

BORN:

1868 Indiana, USA

DIED:

1940

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Introduction

The Knight engine was an internal combustion engine, where no inlet and outlet valves were used, but sliding plates.

A sliding engine is born.

Happy reading,

Istas René

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Knight together with financier L.B. Kilbourne founded an engine factory, where the engine was produced on a large scale. The best known model that was fitted with the engine was the Willys- Knight. Many other manufacturers also sold models with the name Knight in the type designation to distinguish the from the regular models. Knight also made it possible to have the engine produced under license. In addition, he received royalties for each car sold.

The sliding engine was relatively successful, but the production costs were high, so the engine could only be used in the more expensive car segment. In addition, the engine's performance was lagging behind and its reliability, due to the complex construction, was too low.

From 1905 to 1907 Knight also produced its own car, the Silent Knight. The name refers to the relatively quiet character of the sliding engine compared to the regular side valves of the time.

Knight design had two cast iron sleeves per cylinder, one sliding in the other, with the in the interior. The sleeves were operated by small connecting rod driven by an eccentric shaft and had gates cut out at their top ends. The (called "junk head") was like a fixed, inverted piston with its own set of rings protruding from inside the interior. The heads became detachable separately for each cylinder. The design was remarkably quiet and the bus valves needed little attention. However, it was more expensive to manufacture because of the fine grinding required on surfaces of the sleeves. It also used more oil at high speeds and was more difficult to start in cold weather.

Design of the engine allowed a central location for the spark plugs a better flame path, large ports improved gas flow and hemispherical combustion chambers which in turn allowed higher power delivery. In addition, the sleeve valves requiring much less maintenance than light valves, which required adjustment, grinding and even replacement after just a few thousand miles. The adiabatic and isothermal properties at the increased power provided by the large (relatively contemporary poppet valve models) port areas in the sleeves revealed a double-sleeve concept of Achilles heel. Many of the benefits are achieved by increased volumetric efficiency could be achieved due to the inability to provide resulting heat in a sufficiently steep slope to avoid excessive internal temperature. Due to these thermal conditions, contrary to usual practice, the induction port area was reduced to significantly less than that of the exhaust port. Later engines with thinner, steel-white metallized bushings possessed improved levels of heat dissipation, but thermal problems would remain characteristic of the design, thus allowing the development of possible inherent limitation in the double-slip motor.

Improvements in the design and materials of the more common poppet valve motor eliminated most of the advantages initially retained by the provided variant, which made the early 1930s manufacture of the Silent Knight had stopped with only a few French car manufacturers continuing the war.

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Knight and Kilbourne had hoped US would interest car manufacturers in the engine so that they could grant licences for its manufacture, but at first there were no takers. Pierce-Arrow of Buffalo, New York tested the engine against one of their own and found that it was stronger at speeds above 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) and would also go faster. But they dismissed as unsuitable for their offer of , because they believed that just over 55 miles per hour (89 km/h) was unsafe. They also considered the oil consumption (about 2 litres per 70 miles) excessive. Knight also received some bad publicity at the same time that a prototype car in 1906 Glidden tour was introduced, only to fall out on the first day due to mechanical breakdown.

Daimler-Knight

Daimler 22 hp open 2-person

(1909 for example) mascot on radiator cap (CY) Knight

After virtually ignored two written approaches by engineer Edward Manville , a director of Daimler , Knight changed his mind and decided to try in English to interest manufacturers in his engine. In 1907 Knight went with one of his cars to London, where he managed to see together with her compatriot Percy Martin , also a director of Daimler. Engineers Daimler tested the engine and the results were sufficiently encouraging for Daimler to set up a secret team to fully develop Knight's understanding. At the end of the project, however, it was no longer "Wholly Knight". Knight obtained a British patent for his modified engine on 6 June 1908. In September Daimler announced that "Silent Knight" engines would be installed in some of its 1909 models.

To counter criticism from its competitors, Daimler had the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) their own independent tests of the Daimler-Knight. RAC engineers took two Knight engines and ran them under full load of 132 hours non-stop. The same engines were then installed in a and driven 2000 miles (3200 km) on the Brooklands circuit, after which they were removed and re-run on the bench for 5 hours. RAC engineers reported that, when the engines were dismantled, there was no discernible wear, the cylinders and were clean, and the valves showed no signs of wear either. The RAC was so impressed that it awarded the Daimler 1909 Dewar Trophy .

The RAC reports caused Daimler share price to rise, £ 0.85 to £ 18.75, and competitors of the company to fear that the poppy-valves engine would soon be obsolete. WO Bentley was of the opinion that the Daimler-Knight engine carried out, as well as the similar Rolls-Royce power plant.

The Knight engine (significantly improved by the engineers of Daimler) attracted the attention of the European car manufacturers. Daimler bought the rights of Knight "for England and the colonies" and shared responsibility for the European rights, to which it has of 60%, with Minerva of Belgium. European rights were bought from them and used by et Levassor and Mercedes .

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Attracted by the capabilities of the "Silent Knight" engine, Daimler President had contacted Knight in Chicago and Knight settled in England near Coventry in 1907. Daimler contracted Dr. Frederick Lanchester as their consultant for the purpose and a great re-design and refinement of Knight's design took place in the deepest secrecy. Knight's design was made into a practical proposal. When unveiled in September 1908, the new engine caused a sensation. "Suffice it to say that mushroom valves, springs and cams and many small parts, are swept away the body, we have an almost completely spherical explosion chamber and a cast iron shell or tube as part of the combustion chamber in which the piston moves. Daimler dropped poppet valve engines all the way down and kept their silent sleeve-valve engines until the mid 1930s.

Many vehicles were described as being susceptible to malfunctions due to the lubrication of the cylinder and sleeve contact surfaces. Often good lubrication cannot be guaranteed with the lubricants available at the time, especially with insufficient maintenance. This problem increased by speeds above 1600 rpm, after which the sleeve-valves engine longer superior output. With a maximum achievable speed of around 1750 rpm, the long-term development potential for the engine was limited.

Introduction

This article is about the Panhard sliding motor. Actually I think that's a nonsensical name; the French name covers the load better (without valves). The principle is that in the cylinder two cans go up and down independently of each other, driven by an eccentric shaft in the crankcase, to take care of the breathing of the engine. This axle is called latéral or lateral crankshaft in French; also called arbre (or axe) des eccentriques. This axle has long and short connecting rods for the buses. The buses have slots for the supply and removal of gas. The system had its advantages (the vulnerable valve mechanism due to a lack of metallurgical knowledge (although Panhard engines with valves were considered indestructible) and the noise of the valves exposed in the beginning was avoided; efficiency and cooling were better) but also disadvantages (too complicated for "ordinary" mechanics and a high oil consumption due to the lubrication of three bushings (1 fixed, 2 moving) per cylinder). After the war 39-45 Panhard switched over to valve control, but as stubborn as La Doyenne was, it was also quite unconventional.

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Figure 4

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Sliding motor operation

This engine takes over the cylinders, connecting rods, pistons, crankshaft and crankcase from the classic engine, but in the crankcase there is an extra element: a lateral crankshaft (K) which is driven by the main crankshaft (E) via a chain (I) (see Fig. 4).

This lateral crankshaft has a function similar to the present camshaft.

It has eccentric connecting rods (L) connected to an "ear" at the bottom of a thin cast iron bushing (a bus called "tiroir" or "chemise" in French). These bushings - there are two per cylinder - fit closely together and, operated by the connecting rods, slide up and down into the cylinder. The piston goes up and down in the inner bus.

So, to make an overview, from the outside to the inside: a. the with the cylinder bores b. the first bus that slides up and down in the cylinder c. the second bus that goes up and down independently of the first bus in this case d. the piston with conrod that does its job in the second bus.

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Figure 6

What's the point of these buses? They give access to their inside by means of slots in their top left and right (so two slots per bus). Because the buses are moved up and down by the lateral crankshaft, but with a certain deviation from each other, the slots will be in a flowing movement opposite or apart from each other, opening or closing a passage to the inside, and this to the left or right. With the inlet slots facing each other, the outlet slots shifted from and a piston that goes down, gas can be sucked into the combustion chamber, with both inlet and outlet slots shifted and ascending piston follows compression. During the work stroke, all slots are closed and the outlet slots open at the exhaust stroke.This controls the four strokes of the four- stroke engine.Due to the absence of valves, the combustion chamber no longer has to have aor other strange shape, but the cylinder head can be nicely half spherical, with the spark plug in the top.

The head is provided with a circular groove in which the bushings can be pushed up as high as possible. Furthermore, it is fitted with sealing , two thin ones at the top and a thicker

ENRESO WORLD - ILab Page 9 one at the bottom, so that when the slots are still (partially) open, the passage through the head is closed at an undesirable moment (see fig. 6, situation 3,4).

The advantages of the valveless motor

In contrast to the valve control, which is rather tick-tocked, the operation of the buses is much smoother, without sudden transitions. All movements are guided, without play. In technical language, this is called desmodromic operation. Due to the absence of the sound of ticking valves, the engine is much quieter: stationary you can't hear it at all, and at full power you can hear some filtered babbling.

At the time, in valve engines, only 20% of the fuel that had penetrated to the carburettor was used for engine power. The spark plug was (in the case of side valve engines, BT) far away from the ends of the combustion chamber. The combustion process lagged far behind the compression and resulted in 35% unburned gas. Where thevalves were sitting was was the cooling laborious and coal was formed. In the slotted engine, breathing is much better controlled by the larger openings and turbulence is avoided. The filling of the cylinders is perfect, the spark plug is in the right place and is optimally cooled. This allows the compression ratio to increase and you get a stronger engine at the same weight, which is more economical and wastes less calories on cooling water or exhaust. Hey efficiency rises above 30 %.

There are two drawbacks: the lubrication of the bushings is very tight, due to galling, and the same goes for the control of the expansion of the moving parts. This technique requires very precise manufacturing of the bushings (down to the micron, as Paul Panhard put it), first in cast iron and later in regular steel for less weight and more accuracy. However, it is fortunate that the forces present are distributed over a large contact area, so that the oil particles that are mangled between the bushings do not become too hot and heat transfer is easy. But the oil consumption is comparatively high: about a litre in the 300 km, and the with such engines always betray themselves by the blue smoke that hangs behind them; perhaps that's why the expression: fumigate the competition.

From 1922 the company devoted itself exclusively to sliding engines, which became the hallmark of its factory.

In 1923, the inner sleeve made of coated steel was introduced. The inside of the outer bus is also covered in white metal, thanks to a specially patented process. The bars in the slots allow them to be self-cleaning. The piston is now made of aluminium, and the cylinder head is also made of aluminium.

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On the left old cast iron bus, on the right 3 new Babbit steel buses + small weight. Talk about weight saving and progress!

The sliding motor is tested on the Montlhéry ring. In June 1925 a 20 CV sets the hour record on circuits at 185,773 km/h. In March and September 1926 a 35 CV 8-cylinder SS of 6.3 litres (see above) sets several distance records with more than 200 km/h on average. The record attempts continued until 1935.

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Car manufacturers who used the Knight sliding motor

• Brewster • Columbia • Daimler • Falcon-Knight 1927-1929 • Laurin & Klement • Mercedes-Benz • Minerva • Moline-Knight (1914-1919) • Panhard et Levassor • • • R&V Knight (1920-1924) • Silent-Knight 1905-1907 • Stoddard-Dayton • Stearns-Knight 1911-1929 • Avions (1919-1938) • Willys-Knight 1915-1933 • Yellow Cab/Truck Co. (1923-1927)

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