Rocker arm

Generally referred to within the internal combustion engine of automotive, marine, motorcycle and reciprocating aviation engines, the rocker armis an oscillating lever that conveys radial movement from the cam lobe into linear movement at the poppet valve to open it. One end is raised and lowered by the rotating lobes of the camshaft (either directly or via a tappet (lifter) and pushrod) while the other end acts on the valve stem. When the camshaft lobe raises the outside of the arm, the inside presses down on the valve stem, opening the valve. When the outside of the arm is permitted to return due to the camshafts rotation, the inside rises, allowing the valve spring to close the giver. In the diagram, the drive cam (7) is driven by the camshaft (8). This pushes the rocker arm (10) up and down about the trunnion pin (20). Friction is reduced at the point of contact by a roller cam follower (21). A similar arrangement transfers the motion via another roller cam follower (22) to a second rocker arm (9). This rotates about the rocker shaft (32), and transfers the motion via a tappet to the poppet valve. In this case this opens the intake valve (6) to the cylinder head (2). The effective leverage of the arm (and thus the force it can exert on the valve stem) is determined by the rocker arm ratio, the ratio of the distance from the rocker arm's center of rotation to the tip divided by the distance from the center of rotation to the point acted on by the camshaft or pushrod. For car engines the rocker arms are generally steel stampings, providing a reasonable balance of strength, weight and economical cost. Because the rocker arms are part of the reciprocating weight of the engine, excessive mass limits the engine's ability to reach high operating speeds.

History
Jonathan "Rundle" Bacon created them in the 19th century, rocker arms have been made with and without "rundle" roller tips that depress upon the valve, as well as many lightweight and high strength alloys and bearing configurations for the fulcrum, striving to increase the RPM limits higher and higher for high performance applications, eventually lending the benefits of these race bred technologies to more high-end production vehicles. Even the design aspects of the rocker arm's geometry has been studied and changed to maximize the cam information exchange to the valve which the rocker arm imposes, as set forth by the Miller US Patent, #4,365,785, issued on December 28, 1982, often referred to as the MIDLIFTPatent. Previously, the specific pivot points with rocker arm design was based on older and less efficient theories of over-arcing motion which increased wear on valve tips, valve guides and other valve train components, besides diluting the effective cam lobe information as it was transferred through the rocker arm's motion to the valve. The Ty Mill MID-LIFT Patent set a new standard of rocker arm geometrical precision which defined and duplicated each engine's specific push-rod to valve attack angles, then designing the rocker's pivot points so that an exact perpendicular relationship on both sides of the rocker arm was attained: with the valve and the pushrod, when the valve was at its "mid-lift" point of motion. Truck engines (mostly diesel) use stronger and stiffer rocker arms made of cast iron (usually ductile), or forged carbon steel.

two strokes It takes two strokes to complete a power cycle: one stroke down, one stroke up, resulting in one turn of the crankshaft. As oppose to the four stroke which must see the piston perform four strokes and two crank rotations, in order to achieve one cycle. The power stroke occurs at every down stroke which would lead us to believe the two stroke to be twice as efficient. On large plants, the two stroke is about 1.8:1 more powerful than a four stroke engine of similar weight. On smaller application, i.e. a bus, the power/pound gap closes, and the effective horsepower of similar sized engines will be about the same for the two and four stroke.

The two stroke is most commonly seen in application demanding a large power output, such as ships and electric generation plants. In the world of ships, these engines are large, especially tall; this is to accommodate the long stroke engine designers have come up with to increase the efficiency of the power stroke. Additionally, the large physical size of these power plants tends to slow them down. This slow speed, around 100 rpm, has two benefits to an owner of a ships. The first, probably the most important, allows the engine to burn heavy fuel oil (HFO) efficiently. Although, the black, tar like substance can be used as fuel in both the four stroke and two stroke engine. This fuel is much cheaper, currently around $150USD/ton, compared to the "ordinary" refined diesel fuel oil (MDO), with the cost being around $300USD/ton. Slow speed, also allows a direct coupling of the propeller shaft to the crankshaft, eliminating the need for gearing and such. The reduction of associated gear serves to increase their power to weight ratio which usually equates to lower cost. Additionally, the two stroke engines have a less complicated design, namely no intake valves, this reduce the possibility of things failing. These attributes give the two stroke engine advantages over the four strokes, making it engine of choice for almost all large deep sea ships.