The history of Cam engines   
    The concept of moving pistons with a cam rather than a crank has a long history. The first certified aircraft engine was a radial cam engine, the Caminez engine developed by a Fairchild company.  Yes, the same innovative guy who founded Fairchild Semiconductor, and developer of the first computer chip in the late 1950s.  Clearly, this forward thinking guy thought the concept had merit.  But in 1927 it was not possible to machine close tolerance cams, and this prevented the refinement of the concept.  Today, CNC machining has solved that problem.  The proof is found in our highly efficient Rad Cam engine.  

Balancing the combustion/piston dynamic
     In 1982 Professor Antoni Oppenheim, of the University of California coauthored an SAE paper with J. Douglas Dale University of Alberta entitled "A Rationale for Advances in the Technology of IC Engines, (SAE #820047)  The underlying message of the paper was that the dynamics of combustion and a crank-driven piston are out of sync. The paper was a call to engine makers to develop an engine with combustion chambers with a volumetric expansion dynamic that was more in sync with the combustion event.   Professor Oppenheim also published the books  "The Dynamics of Combustion" and "Combustion in Piston Engines".  He suggested that the most suitable engine for realizing an ideal IC engine is a direct-injected two-stroke engine.  The end goal was to design and build an engine that would control combustion so that far more of its thermal energy was transformed into work.

Who Will Take Up The Challenge?
   In the early 1990s, Professor Oppenheim explained the challenge to his friend, Jim Duncalf, who owned an engineering firm in Fremont, California. Duncalf had spent five years on the speaker's bureau of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and had a background in energy conservation.   Duncalf agreed to the challenge, but only under Professor Oppenheim's direction.
  
 


What is a Kamtech RE, and how is it better? 

  • Kamtech Range Extender is a small self-contained electric power plant.  It can meet the US and European regulations regarding CO2/km for the next 10 years.  It can produce a kWh of electricity with less CO2 than the world's electric grid and unlike the world's electric grid it does not emit toxic or poisonous gasses, only CO2 and water.  At its heart is the super-efficient Rad Cam engine (40% thermal efficiency). It only generates electric power, which feeds into the EV's electric system.  
  • It replaces up to 80% of the EVs batteries.  This allows your EVs to be far more efficient, to stop faster, and to handle better.  The Rad Cam is a small energy-dense internal combustion engine.  It was developed to give clean, highly efficient power, and its perfect balance makes it run as smoothly as your EV's electric motors.  Its first licensee was a small aircraft company.  Aircraft engines normally operate at around 80% power capacity so they have to be robust and efficient.  

    Kamtech RE will let all the good aspects of your EV shine while eliminating all the bad habits EVs are famous for.  First to go are range anxiety and charging time trauma.    Your range-extended EV can be refueled at any petrol station.  It can now travel up to 50 km on a liter of fuel and refueling happens in minutes not hours.  Our Rad Cam engine can also operate on biofuels which will make your EVs truly "zero-emission" vehicles. 

Kamtech's 20 kW, 50 kg RE will silently operate but only when there is a need to recharge the vehicle’s battery or power the air conditioning.  It can use its waste heat to warm the EV's interior without limiting its range.  Unlike the large off-the-shelf hybrid engines, Kamtech’s RE only operates at its most thermally efficient speed and load, (over 40%) and at the moment the batteries are charged it shuts off.  

Like most modern cars the Rad Cam engine allows oxidation of HC (unburned hydrocarbons) to CO2 (carbon dioxide) and H2O (water), two organic molecules necessary for life.  Its use will allow your EVs to unplug from  "the most deadly energy produced on Earth."  Unplugging from the grid will not only contribute to cleaner healthier air but will save society from the need and expense of building new charging infrastructure and more generating capacity.  

Reducing the size of your EV's battery also lessens the social and environmental impact of the mining transportation and manufacture of your EV's Battery. According to a much misquoted and maligned study by the Swedish Energy Agency the CO2 emitted in making a typical EV battery pack is >250 kg/kWh or about 25 tonnes for a 100 kWh battery.  Here is a screenshot from page 36 of that study.  The study noted recycling batteries at the end of life may release more CO2. 

Our Rad Cam engine’s longer dwell after at the top of the stroke allows combustion to take place under a higher pressure, in a smaller space.  This permits more of the heat and resulting pressure of combustion to be converted into energy.  Which is why its exhaust temperatures are lower.  The design is based on the principle of more closely matching piston dynamics with combustion dynamics.  A crank-driven piston's short dwell time at the top of the stroke is a major cause of thermal inefficiency.  The Rad Cam uses forced induction, fuel injection, and HCCI.  The Rad Cam also has internal cooling and uses materials that have higher thermal resistance and lower thermal conductivity.  It has several other proprietary features, but the most outstanding is the use of a large cam to move the pistons in a dynamic that greatly increases its thermal efficiency.  

  • The Kamtech EV's generator produces 16 kWe.  
  • The Rad Cam engine displacement is 286 ccm (multi-fuel calibration) 
  • Two Stroke, with isolated lower end, no mixing oil with fuel.
  • Eight-cylinder engine with Forced Induction  
  • SFC_AC: 204g/kWh High Efficiency  
  • Engine Weight: 50kg (without fluids) 
  • Compact Design (45 cm diameter x 45 cm tall) 
  • If service is needed it can be quickly unplugged and removed on a lift for a quick R&R of a serviced unit.  
  • Its low cost allows for leasing to remove the car buyer's fear of reliability.

The Rad Kame engine also has sufficient power to operate an air-conditioning compressor via an output shaft with minimal impact on efficiency. 

Its waste heat can provide interior heat in colder weather.


Find a problem you care about and develop a technology to solve it.
   After all the bench and flight testing Mark Bierele was trying to set up a production line for his design, and Jim Duncalf was looking for more companies to license the concept to.  In the fall of 2006 Duncalf and his brother went to the San Francisco Auto Show.  There they met a Martin Eberhard at a booth of a new company called Tesla.  Martin and his partner Marc Tarpenning had electrified a lightweight British sports car called the Lotus Elise. They bought the drive train from another small company Tzero and powered the drive train with lithium-ion batteries, the same cells that power laptop computers, only this prototype had 400 kg of them. 

    After a little small talk, Martin explained a they were hoping to lower the weight, lengthen its range, and shorten its charging time.  This looked like the perfect application for an engine that could produce a kWh of power with less CO2 than the electric grid.  After a short discussion, about the potential of replacing a few hundred kg with the Rad Cam, powered generator they agreed to meet for further discussion on working together.

   But Duncalf's attempts to follow up failed.  Tesla's two founders and their first large investor, Elon Musk were having lots of friction.  Musk had allied with the owners of the world's electric grid as well donating millions to politicians who are in a position to give him tax-supported subsidies.   This precluded any chance of Tesla embracing the Rad Cam technology.  We were shut out and a few years later Musk removed the two founders of Tesla.  This is even though these two founders had led the design of virtually all of Tesla's cars except for the Cyber Truck.  

Musk's alliances proved beneficial as billions of dollars of government monies have been granted to his companies in both the US and China.  Tesla was even sold an entire auto plant for 42 million on land that was estimated to be worth 3-4 billion.  Musk quickly became the richest man in the world because of his ownership of taxpayer-funded companies. 

A few months after this visit with one of Tesla's founders Duncalf and Bierele found themselves being fined for not being compliant with the planned phaseout of all IC engines.  This put the development of the Rad Cam engine on hold for several years. Hopefully, wiser heads will soon prevail.  The world can survive a little more CO2, which is the foundation of all life on earth, however, the toxic emissions pumped into the air by the 4500 large fossil-fueled electric plants are another story. 



Professor Antoni K Oppenheim

Luminary Of Rad Cam

Antoni was like the father of this project. He was determined not to let us fail in this challenge he gave us. When things looked insurmountable Toni would open up one of his large file cabinets and in a few minutes would find an answer. Then with the patience of a teacher, he would break down solutions or new concepts into understandable words. He never once said he did not have time to examine our progress. He was determined not to let us fail in this challenge he gave us. He always showed great enthusiasm for developing answers on how to improve the efficiency and performance of the Rad Cam engine concept. He was never short of new and innovative ideas. With quiet modesty, he was happy when we proved his concepts were viable. He is sadly missed.

Smokey Yunick

Mechanical Consultant

Smokey Yunick, was one of the most creative and knowledgeable engine designers perhaps in the world. He did consulting for various automakers during his years, most notably Hudson, Ford, and General Motors. Duncalf contacted him in 1991 shortly after taking on Professor Oppenheim's challenge to develop a truly "ideal engine." A few days after Duncalf explained Oppenheim's thoughts on better piston dynamics Smokey called with a recommended a constant acceleration cam profile. He explained that such a dynamic would put the least initial force on the engine and produce the longest dwell time at both ends of the stroke. His insights into lubrication were also helpful. He too never put a time limit on his contributions. Duncalf went into this project partly because he had long been a fan of Smokey's articles in Popular Science magazine.

Jim Duncalf

CTO and Patent holder

Jim is the guy who took on the challenge to lead the efforts to fulfill Professor Oppenheim's vision of an "Ideal Engine". His zeal for this project was inherited from father. In 1923 Jim's father electrified his parent's farm. The power came from a converted windmill connected to a bank of discarded railroad signal batteries. It was very popular in the area. Then in 1935, the police destroyed the system. A legal monopoly was given to the wealthy owner of a local power company. In many countries, large electric power companies are now seeking a similar legal monopoly to provide electric power to all the world's cars. In the last couple of decades some of the richest people in the world art trying to get a legal monopoly to sell electricity to the world's cars. But today a rising backlash is about to happen. Please resist!

Mark Beierle

Engine designer/builder

Mark Beierly, the head of design and major stockholder of Earthstar Aircraft Company, was our first licensee. Mark and his team built several generations of prototypes, the last one being a production version. Every one of the prototype engines gave clear proof that Professor Oppenheim's writing in several papers and books regarding combustion dynamics were valid. When Duncalf, Yunick, and Beierle turned Oppenheim's concepts into a working design the engine's thermal efficiency was very close to 50%. Beierle efforts, skill, and experience in engine design and his dedication to the building and testing of the engine were key in making the Rad Cam a practical and efficient power plant that will revolutionize the EV sector.

  • 21:04 Block E27 Belleza, Đ. Số 2, Phú Mỹ, Quận 7, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh 700000
Help Make The World Better!

Help Make The World Better!

Lots of time and money have been invested by several academicians, engine designers, machinists, and mechanics to translate the theory of improved piston dynamics into a working model. After many failed attempts over several years and 6 prototypes, the Radial-Cam engine has been transformed into a Range Extender design. This important technology is beyond the ability of the team to fund or commercialize it. For this reason, we are ready to hand the project over to a qualified partner. We are offering a technology partnership to a far sited automaker. The Kamtech REEV concept can be installed into a potential partner's vehicle's design to produce a more user-friendly EV that has none of the bad habits of battery EVs or hybrids. In corporating a Kamtech RE into your car design will also allow EV buyers to unplug from "the most deadly energy in the world," the world's electric grid. The new Kamtech will give your EVs higher marketability than any other type of drive system. It will also make the world a better place for people to live and breath in. It will also reduce the need for society to invest in more polluting coal and petrol fueled electric plants. .

The Future Belongs to the Innovators

The Future Belongs to the Innovators

The first manufacturer that partners with us will be granted a paid-up licensee to use technology in any product they manufacture. As the technology becomes mainstream there will be lots of opportunities to share in the sublicensing of the technology to other sectors and manufacturing firms. Keep in mind that there will be lots of work to do to get this design into a production-ready unit. We are looking for an established firm that has both the goal and ability to make their community and the world a cleaner, greener, and less polluted place. There is not only the opportunity to license the Kamtech RE itself but also the opportunity to become an OEM supplier of units, parts, technical know-how, training, and several other profit centers that normally arise with any new technology. This is a radical new technology so international advancement will be of great benefit to a partner. We welcome your inquire.

Looking for Strong Backing!

Looking for Strong Backing!

Kamtech's founders learned some hard lessons in the past about the power of government and the even stronger power of a free market, which seems to finally winning against the strict market interference in the automotive sector. These lessons have made it clear that Kamtech's team needs to find a partner that is strong financially, and strong-willed to deal with the enormous political power of the "Climate Industrial Complex". The potential partner must be eager and willing to advance their market share. Many Builders of EVs fit that bill. Kamtech's technology will make any partner's EVs the most user-friendly vehicle in the marketplace. If you would like success in the BEV market place we can bring you that. If you think your company qualifies please give us a call at 84-79-478-1600. Thanks, to the Kamtech design team, Phạm Duy Tùng and Jim Duncalf...