The KS90V Low Temperature Stirling Engine configuration lifts the power piston and cylinder up from the top plate and places it horizontally level with the main axle and crank, with the power cylinder being connected to the main chamber by a small stainless steel tube. This allows both connecting rods to attach directly to the same crank mechanism and gives a shorter, more compact engine. The engine also features anodised aluminium chamber plates, super-lightweight flywheel spokes and a solid brass rim, all styled in an elegant and efficient manner.
This KS90V engine is the ultimate eco-friendly device, showing with one spin of the flywheel a clean and simple way of converting waste heat into motion. Because these engines rely on a temperature difference for operation, they will run on almost any heat source. Typical heat sources include hot coffee or tea, warm sunlight, TV digibox and the human hand. As long as one plate is 5°c to 10°c warmer than the other the engine will run. It doesn't matter which plate is warm, as long as the other is cooler. If you warm the bottom plate the engine will run clockwise, if you reverse the temperature differential and warm the top plate the engine will run anti-clockwise.
Stirling engines work by cyclically heating and cooling the air inside the main chamber. As the air heats up it expands, and as it cools down it contracts. This expansion and contraction drives a small piston which in turn drives the flywheel. The clever thing about Stirling engines is that the mechanism for cycling the heating and cooling of the air is built into the engine in the form of the displacer, which is driven by the flywheel and crank arrangement and moves the air from the warm side to the cool side and back again over and over.
The Stirling engine is named after its inventor, Rev. Robert Stirling, who patented his idea in 1816.
The engine is available fully assembled and ready to go or as a self-assembly kit.
Click the image below for PDF assembly, operation and maintenance instructions for this engine.