Opposed piston 2 stroke engine

[MercedesDriver]

Could this be the future of ICE?
According to SAE major 2S issues have been addressed and as I can see it only the production cost, which can be lowered if the manufacturing is scaled up, is the barrier for wider implementing of the technology.

Achieving Ultra-Low Oil Consumption in Opposed Piston Two-Stroke Engines

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[Stratman]

Will a production plant be up and running before the sale of ICE equipped cars is banned?

 

[MercedesDriver]

Will a production plant be up and running before the sale of ICE equipped cars is banned?

There is always a possibility of

 

[Stratman]

There is indeed but I'm not sure I'd risk the startup costs.

Watching the video(s) I couldn't work out where the in and out ports are. I saw a ring of holes just above BDC, I assume it's them but how they work I've no idea, I'm guessing the crankcase is no longer involved.

 

[BTB 500]

Watching the video(s) I couldn't work out where the in and out ports are. I saw a ring of holes just above BDC, I assume it's them but how they work I've no idea, I'm guessing the crankcase is no longer involved.

See:

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[MercedesDriver]

There is indeed but I'm not sure I'd risk the startup costs.

Watching the video(s) I couldn't work out where the in and out ports are. I saw a ring of holes just above BDC, I assume it's them but how they work I've no idea, I'm guessing the crankcase is no longer involved.

More explained here, but looks like that passing the dead point of each piston opens the in and out ports.

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[BTB 500]

It's interesting that driving a second crankshaft and a second set of pistons apparently involves less friction than running a conventional valve train.

The fuel economy was quoted as being 30% better than a conventional diesel, but that second video is over 4 years old so I wonder if that's still valid? That sort of improvement is very impressive but not really earth-shattering nowadays - maybe the future of this technology is in hybrid powertrain for applications where pure EV isn't (yet) practical e.g. many commercial vehicles?

 

[SW18]

Reminds me of the late great Napier Deltic engine, which was another example of an opposed-piston 2-stroke. The design didn't catch on as they had a reputation for being complex and hard to maintain.

Napier Deltic - Wikipedia

 

[Pugwash101]

Just for interest 2 stroke opposed piston diesel engines were used in some ships from the 1930's and a few decades afterwards - Doxford were a UK marine engine builder that I think pioneered them, although I stand to be corrected on this last point

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[mersum1es]

Lotsa similar stuff by searching 'Free piston engine'

 

[BTB 500]

Just for interest 2 stroke opposed piston diesel engines were used in some ships from the 1930's and a few decades afterwards

And in some German aircraft from the early '30s through to the end of WW2.

 

[John N]

Just listening to that video has convinced me that I will be replacing my quiet Diesel, with another quiet Diesel!

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Interesting...but nothing new from them since late 2018.

 

[SW18]

I did also spot that the truck had Aramco sponsorship logos on it; a last-gasp attempt by them to drum up some longer-term custom for their lakes of oil? The Saudis have a lot to lose from a move away from fossil fuel.

 

[MercedesDriver]

Interesting...but nothing new from them since late 2018.

The last announcement was from from September 2019 with introduction of new WW engineering team. Also interesting is that they have new CEO coming from Cummins which can only mean one thing, so who knows what's going on now , must be all Top Secret now.
Multimedia - Achates Power

 

[BTB 500]

Looks like the company has been going since 2004 and has received 25 million dollars of grants/awards so far without (as far as I can tell) selling anything yet? Which seems a bit odd given that this is fairly well proven technology - from a quick search opposed-piston diesels were in continuous use until 2018 (almost 90 years of operational experience to draw on).