U.S. firm Avadi – using a Quebec inventor’s design – has developed a sort of “rotary piston” ICE that could revolutionize small engines
- New type of internal-combustion engine features piston that rotates within the cylinder
- It offers an incredible power-to-weight ratio and uses half the number of parts as a comparable ICE
- The engine is being developed by U.S. firm Avadi Engines Inc., using a Quebec inventor’s design
As the industry’s transition to electrified vehicles continues, albeit at a slower pace, you wouldn’t think many would be working on developing more sophisticated internal-combustion engines. Oh, to be sure, some automakers are refining their current ICE powertrains. But reinventing piston-powered engines? Not so much.
Well, an American company called Avadi is undaunted by all that EV momentum and doing just that, reinventing the piston-powered engine, and it’s just developed a prototype that is as novel as it is minuscule. It’s called the MA-250, and, for lack of a better description, it’s sort of a rotary piston engine.
The benefits, say Avadi, are manifold. Because the ring gears provide a gear reduction within the ICE engine itself, the company says there’s more torque produced. Because the intake and exhaust “valves” are a simple rotary disc in the cylinder head, the need for a heavy and complicated traditional valvetrain is eliminated. And all that internal rotation makes the whole process self-balancing, something Avadi says is not possible when the piston and crankshaft movement are perpendicular to one another.
Most of all, however, the Avadi engine is incredibly compact. The prototype – a 250-cc single-cylinder, the typical displacement of a beginner’s full-sized motorcycle – puts out 15.5 horsepower, but weighs just 11.8 kilograms (26 lbs) and looks to be the size of a traditional 50-cc engine. That why Landon Wilkinson, the company’s CEO and president, sees it as particularly useful anytime a superior power-to-weight ratio is required.
Oh, and one more thing: Though the company’s research centre has been based in Yakima, Washington for the last seven years, the original rotary-piston engine was designed by Michel Arseneau of Ayer’s Cliff, Quebec. Yup, Canada is coming to the rescue of internal-combustion.
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