Amazing New Valve Control Technology

[sptcoupe]

A bit long, but really interesting new technology for controlling valve timing and position. Good to watch at your desk with a sandwich.

http://www.wimp.com/combustionengine/

[djape1977]

fascinating.

however, is there a place for petrol powered cars in the future? i'm afraid that this technology is simply too late to matter. sure, it will be implemented in high end cars, but even they are destined to be outperformed by electric cars. i'm afraid that in 10 or 20 years time this will be remebered as just one of curiosities, same as wankel, miller cycle etc.

[aj81spider]

It is cool. Seems like it should be a big improvement - but the car companies are not always quick to adopt those.

Whether electric cars will replace gas in the near (20 year) future is something I'm pretty skeptical about. There are 33 kwhr of energy in a gallon of gas. I use about 10 gallons a week (making me a pretty light consumer) which comes out to roughly 1300 kwhr per month. Depending on the time of year I use about 450-800 kwhr/month of electricity today in my house.

Apart from the power generation issue - I think the investment in electrical grid that will be required to transport enough electricity so everyone can triple or more their consumption of electricity will be a limiting factor on the penetration of electric cars.

It's one thing for you to be using the grid at night when no one else is to charge the only car in the neighborhood. When everyone in the neighborhood is charging their car the night will suddenly be the heaviest load period on the grid.

[RRoller123]

Power to weight ratio does not presently favor electric systems, but it is always possible that a new form of battery will be developed. But then again, I remember that we said that many decades ago when I was studying this stuff. I think that pretty much all the chemical combinations that are practicable have been explored.

[garion]

I've been waiting to see this tech for forever. Its about time! Being able to eliminate the timing chain and cams would be a huge boon for making engines more efficient. Now couple this with the 36volt system tech that I saw years ago in a BMW, you're talking eliminating all belts, except maybe for a water pump. The 36volt starter was also the alternator (going around the flywheel), the AC and power steering were both electric motors..

I'd also be interested in seeing what could be done with other engine configurations. Since we'd be freed from having cams, we could have completely different engine designs.

Other cool ideas, like the compressed air stuff mentioned in the video, is the 6 stroke, with water injection. And I'm sure that there';s tons of other tech out there. I heard something about water/methonal injection that supposedly becoming huge.