THE ROTARY ENGINE

If you’ve ever encountered a Mazda RX7 in real life, you might have noticed that it sounds a little different than other cars, especially when it’s rapidly accelerating. We’re so accustomed to cars with piston engines that it’s hard to imagine there could be any other way to power your car. But in the middle of 20th century another kind of engine began appearing in cars from Germany to Japan. 

The rotary engine, often referred to in the context of automobiles as the Wankel rotary engine, is a type of internal combustion engine that uses a design radically different from the conventional piston engine.

The rotary engine was invented by Felix Wankel, a German engineer, who began conceptualizing the engine in the 1920s and filed his first patent in 1933. However, it wasn’t until the 1950s that Wankel, collaborating with NSU Motorenwerke AG (now part of Audi), developed the first practical version of the rotary engine. The first running prototype,

the DKM motor, was completed in 1957, and the more practical KKM motor design (which closely resembles the rotary engines used in cars) followed soon after. The simplicity of design, compactness, smooth operation, and potential for high power output made the rotary engine attractive for automotive applications. One of the first cars to utilize the Wankel rotary engine was the NSU Spider, introduced in 1964. This marked the beginning of the engine’s use in consumer vehicles.

Despiteits advantages, the rotary engine faced challenges, including lower fuel efficiency, higher emissions compared to piston engines, and durability issues, particularly concerning apex seals. These challenges, combined with increasingly strict emissions regulations worldwide, have limited the widespread adoption of rotary engines in recent years. However, Mazda has continued to explore the use of rotary engines, including their potential role in hybrid powertrains and as range extenders for electric vehicles, suggesting that the rotary engine may still have a future in the automotive industry. Driving a car equipped with arotary engine versus one with a conventional piston engine presents a uniquely different experience, shaped by the fundamental contrasts in their mechanical designs and operation characteristics. Rotary engines are known for their smoothness and high-revving nature. This smooth operation is a result of the rotary engine’s design, which eliminates the reciprocating motion of pistons and instead utilizes a spinning rotor. This leads to significantly less vibration and noise compared to piston engines, providing a more refined and quieter ride.

Kontributor : Febrian Adi Pratama Kelas XI TKR-2