Steam Engine Development
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The Development Process
The product development process consists of the following steps:
- Gather Requirements
- Create a Design
- Specify What Will be Built
- Describe How to Build It
- Bill of Materials with Sources
- Fabrication Plan (Diagrams, CAM, CNC, etc)
- Assembly Instructions
- Prototype
- Final Product
The creation of a prototype will often reveal design flaws, hidden assumptions, new requirements, etc. This learning is fed back into the development process to create a new design leading to another prototype. When sufficient quality is reached, the product is released (leading to Marketing Plans, User Documentation, Production Plans, and other considerations).
Progress
- 2/5/2009 - We are still developing a strategy for building the first steam engine. We have not decided whether we should cast the engine block or approach it by using stock tubing and parts.
- 4/30/2011 - Project has been re-started based on dialog between Marcin and Mark Norton.
- 5/3/2011 - Updated design goes into review at SACA.
- 5/5/2011 - Design review input received from SACA. Bump valve spring issues lead to consideration of a piston valve control.
Unanswered Questions
- What kind of steam control valve should we use?
- What will be fabbed vs. bought off-the-shelf?
- What size bore will we use?
- Should we enclose the crankshaft for safety and mess-prevention?
- How do we control oil flow out of the dribbler?
Design Snapshot
The following description is a summary of the current Steam Engine Design. For more details, please see Steam Engine Design.
Two designs are under active consideration with the steam control valves being the main difference:
Ball Valve Design
Piston Valve Design
Collaborators
- | Open Source Ecology
- Marcin Jakubowski, Visionary
- Mark Norton, Project Leader
- | Steam Automobile Club of America
- Tom Kimmel
- Ken Helmick
- Karl Petersen
- | Cyclone Power Technologies
- Harry Schoell
- | TinyTech, India
- V.K. Desai