Alexis Radial Compressor
by Joe
Laleman |
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| One
good thing leads to another |
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CS: One of the best things about the Internet
is the ability to share designs and ideas across the globe in
the blink of an eye. We are also able to share our thoughts as we work on
our creations. And it is often that one good design or
idea leads to another as in the following case of a new and
revolutionary, air compressor design. |
| Paul Krieg introduced me to a
radial pump design by Joe Laleman. It transpired that Joe had built
Paul's radial engine using my
instructions and a hose connection and timing diagram from Paul, and
had got it working perfectly the first time. Now, that is a great
achievement in itself! |
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PK: Even though we both agree that the hand pump is the best compressor,
he has come up with some very interesting solutions. Joe says it makes enough pressure to pop the
hoses off. Of course there is still volume to be concerned with. I encourage you to examine his design. I was impressed by his crank and
the use of 40t gears. Perhaps if you have the resources you may want to
see how a design like this compares using your RCX controlled tester. I
see that this design is much more complicated than most if not all other
compressors that I have seen. Maybe over time the design will simplify
itself. And, even though I may never personally build one, I enjoy seeing this venture and what may be gained from it. Please enjoy...
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| The
Alexis Radial Compressor |
| JL: I have been very disappointed with the performance of all the Lego motorized
pumps I've tried. Paul Krieg's Radial Engine inspired me to try a
compressor design of my own. I thought I'd try to build one that would give me the volume of air needed to run the pneumatic machine designs. |
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Top view
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| I didn't want to have two to four units lined up. I wanted a compact single unit with as many pump cylinders and as few moving parts as possible. I
also wanted to be able to add or subtract pump cylinders as needed for the project. I decided to limit the design to only lift arms, angle
connectors, gears, axles, and as few plates as possible. |
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Front View
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| Originally, I had the motors mounted inside the frame, but the stress was too much for the small gears. I was forced to move the motors
outside the frame and use a chain. For some reason, the chain was a bit too short and I had to mount an idler gear to take up the slack of
adding another link. I wanted to run it with two or four motors, but the chain was too big for the limited amount of space between the central
gears. I had to eliminate two of the central gears and run it on two motors. Perhaps I could come up with motors mounted in tandem. |
| All in all, I'm pleased with the design. I kept trying to simplify the design, but I continually ran into limitations of the Lego parts. The solutions
just made it more and more complex. I learned a lot about MLCad and actually used it to work out some of the design problems in
conjunction with fitting pieces together. I've attached some pictures and the data file. |
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Side View
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| I hooked it up to four blue Lego air tanks and it never ground to a halt, so I'm encouraged that two motors may work for eight cylinders. I
presently only have seven mounted. I have two more on order. The fact that there isn't any constraints of the number of cylinders is
something I like. It runs very smoothly with no dead points in the rotation. I'm very pleased that the pistons go full stroke, also. |
| The use of the angle connectors and axles allowed me to build a frame
that was exactly the right size and the interconnecting built many triangles reinforcing each other. It's very strong, yet flexible. |
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Bottom View
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| I enjoyed the challenge and I was able to show my daughter Alexis several mechanical design elements. She doesn't think anyone will ever
build another one because it's so complex and confusing. I wonder if anyone would go to the expense. Luckily, the parts are reusable. |
| The MLCad file is very accurate, but I had some problems with changing the angles of parts. I used as many colors as possible to help see
the separate parts. All the gray and black of the Lego parts causes it all to blur together.
The MLCad file should tell you all you need to know. Please let me know what you think of
it. |
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Three/Four Motor Radial
Compressor |
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