Development
Over the past 30 years Robin Humphries has pondered the problem of converting the theoretical efficiency of rotary motion (rather than the traditional crank-shaft engine) into an actual working engine.
Shane I
Having explored many different ideas in 2002 Robin made a wooden model of his basic idea and showed it to his friend Mike Endean and John Nicholson of Nicholson Maclaren to see what they made of it. They were sufficiently enthusiastic that Robin decided to set about building his concept, which he names after his wife, from his workshop on his farm in Hampshire. Robin set up Shane Engines Limited and commenced with the manufacture of its first engine – Shane I. It was a case of design as you build and by September 2003 there was a working engine which produced Torque of 63 ft lbs at 2,500 rpm giving 30 bhp.
Shane II
A second engine (Shane II) quickly followed learning from the problems identified in the first engine, which related to the interfacing of the cam track with the normal components of a working engine rather than the actual concept itself.
The second engine was 852cc and when first tested produced torque of 116 ft lbs @ 2,500 rpm but the test ended when the 31mm drive shaft sheared in half. However, after an even more robust drive mechanism was introduced the engine continued to produce 116 ft lbs up to 4,500 rpm giving 100 hp. These figures compare favourably with other production engines such as the Ford Zetec which is more than double the size at 1,800cc – and produces Torque 104 ft lbs @ 4,500 rpm
The engine produced these figures before any serious work has been carried out on the exhaust system, timing and overall design. Once these areas of the engine have been addressed, we calculate, the performance should improve by no less than 15% - thus making the Shane engine potentially the most efficient piston combustion engine ever produced.
Shane III
Shane III has just completed its first power trials. Its design incorporates exactly the same basic concept but further design work has reduced the overall size and weight and increased durability. There is considerably more basic work to be done with the carburetion, timing and piston pressure before this engine produces even the most basic of output numbers. However, in its current set-up it has already produced 65 HP from a 554 cc engine at 5,000 rpm which equates to a similar performance as Shane II.
A revolutionary new area of Engine Development especially for Hybrids
There is a further new area of development that
this engine allows to be explored. Unlike the conventional crank shaft engine where the power output follows a sinusoidal
curve due to the crank mechanism, in this engine, by altering the shape of the track one can leave the confines of the sinusoidal
curve and individually tailor the Combustion, Exhaust, Intake and Compression cycles. This opens up a whole new area of development.
The significance of this has only recently started to be recognised with the mass production of Hybrid cars. The current Hybrid
engines are developed from the Atkinson Engine concept (see http://www.answers.com/topic/atkinson-cycle) - the only other design that allows variation in the four
cycles. However, the Shane Engine variable cam track allows much greater flexibility in tailoring the four cycles and whilst
the significance of this will only be discovered with further research, it does appear to have the potential to increase performance
and / or economy significantly.