Nov.3, 2012
Doug Conner from Solar Heat Engines designed a low-temperature 3D printed Stirling engine using Stratasys's fused deposition modeling technology.
My goal in designing this engine was to use 3D printed parts for simplicity everywhere I could without compromising performance. The 170 degree F (77C) temperature limit of the ABS material would limit the engine to low temperatures. Other (more expensive) printed plastics have heat deflection temperatures up to 372F (189C) that could be used in the future on the two temperature-critical parts.
A secondary goal of this engine was to serve as a test bed for experimenting with different regenerator material and to test design methods to improve the heat transfer from the operating gas to the hot and cold plates with increased heat transfer area and small flow channels. This first design is a fairly ordinary low-temperature Stirling engine design to use as a baseline.
(Images credit: Solar heat engines)
Doug Conner shared how he built the Stirling engine with more details and a lot of photos on his site. Check them out here.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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I just put the stl files for the engine up on thingverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34709
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