REGI, Radian Agree on Property Rights for RadMax Rand Cam Rotary

27 December 2005

REGI U.S., owner of the US rights to the Rand Cam rotary engine (earlier post) and its development partner, Radian Milparts, have struck a deal over the rights to the preliminary patent application, trademark and associated materials for the RadMax, an application of the Rand Cam engine in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

In exchange for these property rights, REGI will provide an unconditional release to Radian for all obligations under the UAV license agreement dated April 24, 2002 and modified May 14, 2004.

As a result, REGI will own 100% interest in the rights to the new radmax rotary design. Radian will all the work completed to date, including preliminary patent applications and all hardware.

REGI is in the testing stage for the 42-hp (31-kW) rotary diesel engine. Several defense contractors have expressed interest in testing the 42 hp diesel engine for an unmanned aerial application.

The sliding-vane Rand Cam rotary engine uses a disk-shaped rotor with 12 axial vanes mounted perpendicular to the direction of rotation. The vanes slide back and forth against cam surfaces to alternatively expand and contract the chamber volume.

Through the process of these sliding vanes, combustion chambers form between the rotor, stator walls and vanes where the fuel/air mixture is injected, compressed, combusted and exhausted. Increasing the number of vanes increase the number of combustion events in a revolution of the rotor. The current 12-vane version features 24 combustion events per revolution.

The engine has a calculated 30% working volume efficiency compared to the 10% of a Wankel, and 4% for a piston engine.

REGI US, along with its parent company, Reg Technologies, are also currently testing a Rand Cam diesel engine for a generator application for series-hybrid electric cars.

Sketch of the Duesenberg Torpedo

Another possible solution for a rotary-engine genset in a series-hybrid application has emerged in the form of the proposed 70-mpg Duesenberg Torpedo Coupe—a new design that reportedly would ride on the Mercedes CLS 500 platform, and potentially use the CEM (Cylindrical Energy Module) engine from EP (Eddie Paul) Industries as the genset.

The rotary core of the CEM

The CEM engine is an air-cooled and self-lubricating, forced-air inducted (supercharged), 12-cylinder, double-ended, ported, multi-fueled, four-stroke engine with a calculated output of 300 hp from a 100-pound package. (More on this engine to come in a future piece.)

As far as the Torpedo goes, however, one glitch, according to EP Industries, is that there is no development money—hence, they are not currently at work on that application. EP Industries is, however, working on its own automotive application of the CEM engine, which will use the engine in a conventional drivetrain rather than as a series-hybrid genset.