MM13 - The SCHAGER engine

Technical details
Year of construction 2001
Power piston stroke 10 mm
  diameter 14 mm
Displacer piston stroke 10 mm
  diameter 72 mm
Flywheel  diameter 85 mm
  material PMMA
Idle speed 80 rpm
Energy source heat generated by laptop power supply
Mass 160g 

Description:

The issues with my first LDT engine did not discourage me from attempting to build a second one. Udo Mannek's book "Heißluftmotoren V" (Neckar-Verlag Villingen-Schwenningen; 1998 ISBN: 3-7883-066-1) contains a very clear drawing of the engine built by Mr. D. Schager. I had a ready supply of suitable material and began to design a smaller version of this engine. The bottom and top plates are made of 3 mm aluminum sheet. A flat rubber ring running in a groove secures the plates to the short acrylic cylinder. After a lot of trial and error, I finally managed to make a spring from copper wire that would compensate the weight of the dispacer pistons. The outcome does come up to my expectations: Although it does not run on my hand (see MM06), the engine will happily run for hours off the heat generated by a laptop computer power supply.

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