Note that the crankpin rotating radius is half of the stroke (Mistakenly depicted here)
Typical steam locomotive with two slide bars
A crosshead[1] is a mechanism used in long reciprocating engines and reciprocating compressors[2] to eliminate sideways pressure on the piston. Also the crosshead enables the connecting rod to freely move outside the cylinder. Because of the very small bore to stroke ratio on such engines ,the connecting rod would hit the cylinder walls and block the engine from rotating if the piston was attached direct to the connecting rod like on trunk engines. Hence the position where the crosshead is placed , is equal to the engine stroke.
Contents
- 1 Overview
- 2 Internal combustion engines
- 3 Steam engines
- 3.1 Locomotives
- 3.2 Marine engines
- 4 See also
- 5 References
Overview
On smaller engines the connecting rod links the piston and the crankshaft directly, but this transmits sideways forces to the piston, since the crankpin (and thus the direction the force is applied) moves from side to side with the rotary motion of the crank. These transverse forces are tolerable in a smaller engine; a larger engine's much greater forces would cause an intolerable degree of wear on the piston and cylinder, as well as increasing overall friction in the engine.
A piston rod is attached to the piston and links it to the crosshead, which is a large casting sliding in crosshead guides (UK: slidebar), allowing it only to move in the same direction as the piston travel. The crosshead also houses the gudgeon pin on which the small end of the connecting rod pivots. In this way, the transverse forces are applied only to the crosshead and its bearings, not to the piston itself.
Internal combustion engines
Internal combustion engines using crossheads make for easier maintenance of the top end of the engine, since the pistons can be easily removed. The piston rod is mounted on the underside of the piston and connected to the crosshead by a single nut in double acting engines. The large two-stroke marine diesel engines are usually of this pattern. A crosshead is essential in a double acting diesel engine (see also: H-class battleships: 12 MAN double-acting 2-stroke 9-cylinder diesels). Large diesels often have a plunger oilpump directly attached to the crosshead to supply oil under high pressure to the crosshead bearing.
Steam engines
In the case of the steam engine, a crosshead is essential if the engine is to be double acting - steam is applied to both sides of the piston, which requires a seal around the piston rod. An exception is the oscillating cylinder steam engine which can be double acting and yet has no crosshead.
Locomotives
Crossheads in a steam locomotive can be mounted either to one guide mounted above the crosshead or to two, one above and one below (called an alligator crosshead since it has two "jaws"). The former was preferred in many modern locomotives.
Marine engines
In many 19th century marine steam engines, the crosshead was a strong metal bar attached to the piston rod and perpendicular to it, which was sometimes used to eliminate transverse forces, as in a steeple engine, and at other times used as a linkage—to side-rods in a side-lever engine or to connecting rods in a square engine.
See also
References
- ^ "The Two Stroke Crosshead Diesel Engine Crosshead Pin and Slippers". Marinediesels.info. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
- ^ "3.2.2. Piston (reciprocating) compressor". Drucklufttechnik.de. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steam engine crossheads. |
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crosshead pistons. |
|
Steam engines
|
|
| Operating cycle |
- Atmospheric
- Watt
- Cornish
- Compound
- Uniflow
|
|
| Valves |
|
Valves
|
- Slide
- Piston
- Drop
- Corliss
- Poppet
- Sleeve
- Bash
|
|
|
Valve gear
|
- Gab
- Stephenson link
- Joy
- Walschaerts
- Allan
- Baker
- Corliss
- Lentz
- Caprotti
- Gresley conjugated
- Southern
|
|
|
| Mechanisms |
- Beam
- Cataract
- Centrifugal governor
- Connecting rod
- Crank
- Crankshaft
- Hypocycloidal gear
- Link chain
- Parallel motion
- Plate chain
- Rotative beam
- Sun and planet gear
- Watt's linkage
|
|
| Boilers |
|
Simple boilers
|
- Haystack
- Wagon
- Egg-ended
- Box
- Flued
- Cornish
- Lancashire
|
|
|
Fire-tube boilers
|
|
|
|
Water-tube boilers
|
- Babcock & Wilcox
- Field-tube
- Sentinel
- Stirling
- Thimble tube
- Three-drum
- Yarrow
|
|
|
Boiler feed
|
- Feedwater heater
- Feedwater pump
- Injector
|
|
|
| Cylinder |
- Locomotive
- Oscillating
- Single- and double-acting
|
|
| Condenser |
- Condensing steam locomotive
- Jet
- Kirchweger
- Watt's separate
- "Pickle-pot"
- Surface
|
|
| Other |
- Crosshead
- Cutoff
- Expansion valve
- Hydrolock
- Piston
- Reciprocating engine
- Return connecting rod engine
- Six-column beam engine
- Steeple engine
- Safety valve
- Steeple compound engine
- Stroke
- Working fluid
|
|
| History |
|
Precursors
|
|
|
|
Newcomen engine
|
- Newcomen Memorial Engine (1725)
- Fairbottom Bobs (1760)
- Elsecar Engine (1795)
|
|
|
Watt engine
|
|
Beam
|
- Kinneil Engine (1768)
- Old Bess (1777)
- Chacewater Mine engine (1778)
- Smethwick Engine (1779)
- Resolution (1781)
|
|
|
Rotative beam
|
- Soho Manufactory engine (1782)
- Bradley Works engine (1783)
- Whitbread Engine (1785)
- National Museum of Scotland engine (1786)
- Lap Engine (1788)
|
|
|
|
High-pressure
|
- Richard Trevithick
- Puffing Devil (1801)
- London Steam Carriage (1803)
- "Coalbrookdale Locomotive" (1803)
- "Pen-y-Darren" locomotive (1804)
|
|
|
Compound
|
- Woolf's compound engine (1803)
|
|
|
Murray
|
- Murray's Hypocycloidal Engine (1805)
- Salamanca (1812)
|
|
|
High-speed
|
|
|
|
| See also |
- Glossary of steam locomotive components
- History of steam road vehicles
- Cugnot's fardier à vapeur (1769)
- Murdoch's model steam carriage (1784)
- Lean's Engine Reporter
- List of steam technology patents
- Modern steam
- Stationary steam engine
- Timeline of steam power
- Water-returning engine
|
|
