Piston Path in Wobble Plate Design

[Captain Jerry]

I continue to mess with wobble plate engine design and Alibre' 4D CAD representations. The following video depicts a Z-Shaft type of wobble plate and the path traced by a point on its surface. This is useful in the design of wobble plate engines because it shows the position of the piston connecting rod to the plate. The straight line path of piston travel is depicted as the solid green rod that is parallel to the wobble plate shaft. The little red apple traces the point at which the piston rod is connected to the plate. Four views are shown simultaneously. Starting at top left and proceeding counter clockwise, the views are from the Top, Front, Right Side, and Isometric. It shows that the point of contact oscillates in an arc shaped lazy "8".

The arc is most obvious in the top view. The lazy "8" is most obvious when viewed from the side. And when viewed from the front, an elliptical component is visible.

The video is hosted on Screencast.com. It may some time to load but I have found it very useful to watch. While the video is running, if you put your cursor over the progress/time bar at the bottom of the panel, you can stop, reverse, or move the video to any position. I have discussed most of this in previous threads of works in progress but this is by far the best representation of the complicated motion.

http://screencast.com/t/uFPzz0rQu6

Click on the above link to view the motion video.

Jerry

PS The amplitude of the distance of the path relative to the straight line could be called "Depleneration" couldn't it?

 

[lazylathe]

Hi jerry,

Sounds interesting!

Can you supply a link to the video?

Unless you feel like networking your computer so we can all have access to your C: drive! ;D

Andrew

 

[Captain Jerry]

I'm working on it!

 

[Captain Jerry]

It's working now. Go back to the first post. You must click on the link to see the motion video.

Jerry