Bekaert regenerator material

[Blaf]

Hi,
i just found this. The company is producing a material intended to use as a regenerator in stirling engines.
https://www.bekaert.com/en/products/aut ... -materials

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Y0TMsSr9o[/youtube]

Does anyone have any experience with it? Would you like to share how big is the effective difference compared to commonly used steel wool/mesh?

[Ian S C]

No experience with this stuff. The best material I'v heard of is stainless steel foil, properly prepared this is better than gauze, wire or steel wool.
Ian S C

[Trevor]

Looks very interesting. I would think this would be good for LTD engines if the product is lightweight.
Nice find Blaf - Trev

[Ian S C]

It's probably quite expensive Too.
Ian S C

[Blaf]

It looks like it could be expensive, true. Maybe it would be worth asking if they are willing to send free sample :)

[Ian S C]

Basicly these thing are similar to Oilite sintered bronze/iron bearing bushes without the oil, maybe a little less dense. Btaf, worth a try.
Ian S C

[Blaf]

Unfortunately i don't have any project right now for which i could use it :( I just found it interesting and wanted to share this finding.

Btw, how is this connected to bearing bush? Am i missing something? :)

[Ian S C]

It's similar to the bearing bush in that it is porous, and formed together by squashing it together under heat if sintered. When Whispertech were developing the WhisperGen they even tried using automotive catalytic convers as regenerators(they didn't work too well).
Ian S C

[Blaf]

I see. Yes, the construction might be quite similar.

Catalytic converter sounds like a nice low cost regenerator alternative. But do they have at least some regenerating effect?

[Ian S C]

Dr Clucas of Whispergen didn't think that they had much use as regenerators in Stirling Engines, I think they ended up using a matrix of stainless steel wire, but after they lost the research lab in Christchurch NZ in the earth quake we had 7 years ago I lost touch with them, they may even have gone to something like the Bekaert regenerator material. As far as the Catalitic Converters go, I asked about there use,(I didn't know they had tried them), and was shown shelves of them, probably over 100, the fuel in NZ in those days was not compatible with the use of the C converters, so they were readily available
Ian S C