Engine Construction kits & Wankel shown
3W-International GmbH’s performance partner is introducing a novel engine construction kit in order to enable still more efficient and performance-optimised engines in future. Using this construction kit, propulsion units can be ideally tuned to the customer’s desired performance parameters and application area.
“We’re seeing ever stronger demand for application-oriented solutions“, Karl Schudt, Managing Director of Sky Power GmbH, explains. “That’s why we considered how we could best serve this demand, since each customer favours his own solution. In the past, UAS manufacturers were just interested in getting their flight systems into the air. That’s why propulsion units were often relegated to a subordinate role. This has changed permanently in recent years. Today, UASs have got to fly efficiently and be tuned exactly to their application area.”
Out of this came the first engine construction kit for UAS systems from Sky Power and 3W-International with which customer- and application-specific propulsion solutions can be quickly visualised and implemented.
The engine construction kit consists of widely different components. At the centre is the basic engine, which can be equipped with both a carburettor and the new injection from Sky Power. To this is added as desired exhaust, silencer, and the new ECU and ignition. The engine can furthermore be provided with an e-drive or generator, which uses a converter to generate electrical energy for batteries and super capacitors — so-called supercaps.
Super capacitors can be charged and discharged very much faster. Besides, they withstand a lot more switching cycles than rechargeables, so they lend themselves as substitutes for the latter whenever severe switching stress is required. Super capacitors’ application area stretches from provision of the weakest currents for data retention in static memories (SRAM) up into the power-electronics range, thus for instance, as the store of electrical energy in the KERS system in Formula-1 racing cars. This is also exactly the property required in UAS propulsion units when they’re used as a hybrid system or to feed in energy to enhance the engine’s short-term performance.
All 3W-International engines can be equipped with this e-drive supercap system. The engine can therefore be used as a pure power generator for electrical motors, but also as a combined system in which electrical and combustion energy can be used in combination. Pure usage from combustion energy is likewise possible.
The engine construction kit is being introduced in 3W-International GmbH’s booth #2210 at Xponential 2018.
XPONENTIAL 2018 (auvsiXPO) is showcasing the future of innovation across the unmanned sector and www.monch.com brings together key developments from the show. For more information please see MILITARY TECHNOLOGY #5/2018, available at the show and frequently check back for more NEWS FROM THE FLOOR.
