Recently, I read a joke in Weibo: "Mazda: If you play with a revolving engine, you will have no money. If I have no money, I will sell this car. If I sell the car, I will have money. If I have money, I will play with the rotary engine. "
In addition to spitting, I once again deeply feel that netizens' understanding of "enterprise level" is in place.
This joke appeared in Weibo because a few days ago, the CEO of Mazda personally admitted that the rotary engine would return to the range extender of pure electric vehicles. Although it is only a range extender, although it can only supply power, although it can't directly drive the wheels, when the rotor in the engine does centrifugal motion again, those memories belonging to Takahashi Ryousuke and FC3S will come to mind. Feelings turn into tears, and beliefs condense into dreams. Our Mazda's "brain powder" will not only express encouragement with the keyboard, but also shout "Mazda Niu X" one after another.
We will have the opportunity to explain why rotary engines will become range extenders in the future. In this article, I will take you back to the past life of the rotary engine and why it finally became the ultimate belief of Mazda fans.
Father of rotating engine
We have to admit that the rotary engine was developed because of Mazda. Unfortunately, this Japanese brand is not the "biological father" of the rotary engine. In fact, it was the German engineer Felix Wankel who really invented the rotary engine. Wankel)
Like most famous car engineers, Dr. Wankel is inextricably linked with World War II. In his early years, Dr. Wankel worked in the Aviation Department of Nazi German Empire, specializing in the study of oil seals and rotary valves of aircraft, torpedoes and other weapons. With the defeat of Germany, Dr. Wankel was detained by the allied forces for a period of time. After his release, he joined NSU Automobile Factory in 1950s (later merged by Audi) and began to concentrate on the research of automobile engines.
At first, Dr. Wankel wanted to invent an engine without too much vibration. He believes that the reciprocating motion of the piston is the biggest source of engine vibration. After repeated attempts, Dr. Wankel finally invented a rotary engine without reciprocating motion in 1957.
Tips: The rotary engine invented by Dr. Wankel is code-named "DKM54", but it cannot be mass-produced for various reasons. Later, another engineer of NSU Automobile Factory improved it to enable it to be mass-produced, and the code name of the engine was changed to "KKM? 57 pence.
Rotating engine principle
Then, since Dr. Wankel wants to invent an engine with small vibration, this engine is naturally developed with "small vibration" as the goal. First of all, the traditional four-stroke engine can only do work once for two revolutions, while the rotary engine can do work three times for one revolution, which is very efficient. Secondly, because there is no crankshaft, traditional intake and exhaust valves, camshaft and other parts, the volume of the rotary engine can be very small, and because there is no reciprocating motion inside the engine, its vibration during operation is very small and more stable.
Simply put, the air chamber of a rotary engine is oval, unlike a traditional cylinder. There is a rotating rotor inside, and the shape of the rotor is also very special, similar to the shape of an equilateral triangle composed of three arcs. The rotor is meshed with the intermediate shaft through a gear, and the rotor keeps centrifugal motion.
The ingenuity of this design lies in the shape of the rotor and the air chamber. During the operation of the rotor, the air chamber is divided into three parts, which are responsible for intake and exhaust, compression and ignition respectively, which perfectly completes the work of the traditional four-stroke engine. In addition, by the way, there is an added benefit, that is, the engine speed can be made very high, which has great advantages in power increase.
Tips: As can be seen from the above figure, the traditional piston engine has many parts, which leads to high failure rate and difficult assembly, while the rotary engine with few parts has obvious advantages at this time.
Car companies that have studied rotary engines.
According to the point of view at that time, the rotary engine was definitely the product of "black technology". 1960, NSU installed a 30 HP rotary engine on the Prinz model. Because of its small size and small vibration, the rotary engine was even placed under the floor of the back cabin.
At this time, the major car companies looked at it: "With such a powerful technology, I must not lag behind others!" (Similar to today's new energy vehicles and autonomous driving) So NSU began to sell the manufacturing rights of rotary engines and earned a lot of licensing fees from these car companies.
Then, the arms race officially began. At this time, most car companies in the world have started the research and development and improvement of rotary engines, such as Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Citroen, GM, Porsche, Toyota and other manufacturers have set foot in this technology.
The research and development speed is faster. For example, Citroen has launched a twin-rotor engine that cooperates with NSU. Is the model Citroen GS? Two-rotor engine. There is also the famous Mercedes-Benz concept car C11,which is also equipped with a three-rotor engine with direct fuel injection. The Ford Mustang, which we remember as the most muscular, also used a rotary engine. Even Rolls-Royce has developed a dual-rotor diesel engine, which is planned to be applied to military vehicles.
However, after trying for a period of time, major car companies have hit a wall one after another, and none of the above models can be a great success. In fact, the rotary engine did have defects at that time. The biggest problem is that with the rotation of the rotor, the tightness of the three top gas seals of the rotor will gradually decrease, and the rotor will be seriously worn because of the constant friction with the inner wall of the rotor cavity, which will greatly reduce the life of the rotor engine.
At this point, most manufacturers have given up, leaving only one craftsman-Mazda, who is wearing a red suit.
Mazda pushes the rotary engine to the altar.
After the precipitation of time, the rotary engine has long faded its initial aura, and now it is more like a hot potato, and no one dares to pick it up. Under such circumstances, Mazda resolutely bought all the patents of the rotary engine and paid a huge sum of 280 million yen for it, which is equivalent to the monthly salary of 8,000 employees in the whole company.
At this time, Mazda's sales situation is very poor, and there may be the risk of being merged at any time. Mazda put all your eggs in one basket at this time, and it also smacks of "success or failure". Subsequently, the famous Mazda Rotor Engine R&D Department was established, which was later called "Rotor 47".
It is hard for us to believe that these 47 people have actually solved many problems that car companies have not solved. After numerous attempts, Mazda finally put the rotary engine into practical use and released a legendary sports car-Mazda cosmo? Exercise.
You know, just at the Beijing Auto Show last month, the car was also a "heavy guest" of Mazda's centenary celebration, and its importance can be seen.
For most boys, this car must have appeared in your childhood, but you are watching Ultraman Jack fight monsters. That's right. The patrol car of MAT team, which is called "Tiger of the Sea" in Ultraman Jack, is Mazda cosmo? Sport, this is one of the few models in the Altman series that has not been "magic".
Nothing unexpected, Mazda Cosmao? Sport succeeded, and the success of this car also laid the foundation for the glory of RX series. 199 1 year, Mazda 787B racing car with rotary engine won the Le Mans 24 Hours Endurance Race, which is also the most brilliant moment in the "life" of rotary engine and Mazda. However, the official of the event later banned the rotor engine from participating in the competition, and this competition also became the "most dazzling swan song" of the rotor engine.
Everyone must know something about the following story. Mazda RX family was born, and the rotary engine became Mazda's "unique cheats". Perhaps the one that impressed me the most was the RX-7 driven by the Gao Qiao brothers in Initial D. White fc3 and yellow fd3 are also regarded as "sacred objects" by Japanese refitting enthusiasts, and their status in Japan even exceeds that of Panda AE86.
The decline of the rotating engine
Although "Rotor 47" tried its best to solve the problem of scratching the inner wall of rotary engine, it could not solve the problems of fuel consumption and emission left over by physical laws.
Shortly after Mazda introduced the rotary engine to the market, the first oil crisis broke out and oil prices soared. At the same time, Toyota, Subaru and other manufacturers began to seize this rare opportunity and launched many "economical, practical and fuel-efficient" small cars. Mazda's rotary engine is cold.
Although Mazda survived the first oil crisis with amazing perseverance, it was not good news, but bad news, because the second and third oil crises began again ... At this time, Mazda has "put" the rotor engine from the family car to the performance car, which is undoubtedly sad because of the lack of shrinkage resistance and application scope of the rotor engine. The glory of that year vanished, and efforts were wasted.
We thought that the FD3S in the initial d was the beginning of the myth, but we didn't expect it to be the end. Although Mazda later introduced the RX-8, this car is essentially a four-door and four-seat model and cannot be called a pure sports car. After all, RX-7 is the successor.
2065438+0110/0 in October, Mazda announced that the RX-8 model would be discontinued in June 20 12, becoming the last model equipped with a rotary engine. Now, the audience in unknown so should know why Mazda fans are so excited about the return of the rotary engine.
abstract
In fact, there are too many stories to tell about rotary engines. For example, how does "Rotor 47" solve the problem of scratches on the inner wall of the engine? Why did Mazda choose the rotary engine as the range extender just out of emotion? Why did Wankel develop the miracle of rotary engine without taking a driver's license because of high myopia?
The last one is for fun.
I just want to say that the story of rotary engine is far from over. In the past few years, the car market has lost a lot of fun. Whether it is Mazda fans or people who don't know the truth, our cheers are on the one hand because of Mazda, and on the other hand, we just hope that today's auto market can add some fun. After all, full-screen new energy vehicles and autonomous driving are also quite boring, aren't they?
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.