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Cylinder: Difference between revisions
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A [[piston]] is seated inside each cylinder by several metal piston rings which fit around its outside surface in machined grooves; typically two for compression sealing and one to seal the motor oil. They are made of spring steel and make near contact with the hard walls of the sleeve, riding on a thin layer of lubricating oil which is essential to keep the engine from seizing up. This contact, and the resulting wear, explains the need for the hard lining on the inner surface of the cylinder. The breaking in of an engine is a process whereby tiny irregularities in the metals form congruent grooves. | A [[piston]] is seated inside each cylinder by several metal piston rings which fit around its outside surface in machined grooves; typically two for compression sealing and one to seal the motor oil. They are made of spring steel and make near contact with the hard walls of the sleeve, riding on a thin layer of lubricating oil which is essential to keep the engine from seizing up. This contact, and the resulting wear, explains the need for the hard lining on the inner surface of the cylinder. The breaking in of an engine is a process whereby tiny irregularities in the metals form congruent grooves. | ||
[[Category:Technology]] | |||
Revision as of 21:07, 20 November 2006
A cylinder in the central working part of an internal combustion engine, the space in which a piston travels. Multiple cylinders are commonly arranged side by side in a bank, or engine block, which is typically cast from aluminum or iron before precision features are machined into it. Ceramics have also been tried, so far unsuccessfully. The cylinders may then be lined with sleeves of some harder metal, or given a wear-resistant coating such as Nikasil. A cylinder's displacement, or swept volume, is its cross-sectional area (the square of half the bore times pi) times the distance the piston travels within the cylinder (the stroke). The engine displacement is the swept volume of one cylinder times the number of cylinders in the engine.
A piston is seated inside each cylinder by several metal piston rings which fit around its outside surface in machined grooves; typically two for compression sealing and one to seal the motor oil. They are made of spring steel and make near contact with the hard walls of the sleeve, riding on a thin layer of lubricating oil which is essential to keep the engine from seizing up. This contact, and the resulting wear, explains the need for the hard lining on the inner surface of the cylinder. The breaking in of an engine is a process whereby tiny irregularities in the metals form congruent grooves.
