LIGHT CDUNTERWEIGHTED FLYWHEEL

Evening Star, Issue 21945, 4 February 1935, Page 6

LIGHT CDUNTERWEIGHTED FLYWHEEL

An original form” of engine flywheel has been patented by a French inventor, and is said to have' given very satisfactory results. Its chief purpose is to enable the use of a light flywheel without any loss of the stabilising effect which a heavier wheel exercises on the smooth running of the engine. With high speed power units one of the problems of design is to make the flywheel light enough to allow very fast acceleration of the engine revolutions without the consequent disadvantage of a marked loss of flywheel effect which in the event of any irregularity in the carburetion or ignition helps to * iron out ” the fault. , The invention referred to is a flywheel having movable weights in the form of rollers or steel balls which are free to move in a scries of circular chambers placed close to the circumference of the wheel. Their inertia, it is said, is employed so that although the complete unit is much lighter than the ordinary flywheel of similar dimensions, it exerts _ a most powerful deterrent action on irregular running of the engine. Even a slight variation in the sliced of the crankshaft produces a rhythmic movement of the weights which quickly damps out the irregularity, and it, is claimed that the weight of the flywheel can bo reduced by as much as 50 per cent.