Ludwig Apfelbeck

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Ludwig Apfelbeck (born August 19, 1903 in Knittelfeld ; † March 5, 1987 in Graz ) was an Austrian engineer and designer of internal combustion engines.

life and work

His specialty was four-stroke - cylinder heads with four valves; for this he developed a multitude of arrangement and control options (often with inclined cams).

Apfelbeck became known through a patent for a cylinder head with four radially arranged valves, the inlet and outlet valves being diagonally opposite one another . This enabled both the gas exchange behavior to be improved and the maximum temperature in the cylinder head to be reduced. Apfelbeck submitted his patent application to the Austrian Patent Office in 1935; the patent was granted to him in 1937. The invention was particularly suitable for engines with individual cylinders.

Ludwig Apfelbeck was looking for people interested in his development. Rudolf Schleicher from BMW recognized the potential of the invention and so in 1939 Apfelbeck went to BMW's motorcycle testing department, but was then assigned to other areas of responsibility during the Second World War . After the end of the war he began to build single-cylinder engines with 250 and 500 cm 3 with his radial valve cylinder head in Austria for national motorcycle racing. In 1952 he went to Horex , then moved to Maico in 1955 and also worked briefly for KTM before he was called back to BMW in 1957.

For the BMW 700 , he made the proposal to carry out a performance-enhancing conversion in order to make the vehicle competitive in touring car racing. Alexander von Falkenhausen , then head of the BMW racing department, was initially reluctant. Apfelbeck constructed an OHV engine with already 63 HP, which convinced Falkenhausen. The engine is a vertical shaft equipped and finally made 95 horsepower at 9,000 min -1 with a Einnocken camshaft for both valves.

From this, Apfelbeck developed a valve control that was controlled by a single cam, which was located directly on the vertical shaft. BMW applied for a patent for this process in 1960.

At BMW we wanted in the single-seater racing aboard, and thus constructed Apfelbeck a 2-liter four-valve four-cylinder engine, the 280 hp at 8,500 min -1 gave. This engine attracted a lot of attention, and for the first time, Apfelbeck was well known. When the engine had to be reduced to 1.6 liters, however, technical problems arose that were not related to the valve control. In the course of these problems, Apfelbeck left BMW.

Since he had a good reputation as an engine tuner, various racing drivers turned to him. At Peters Pneu Renova , a tire retreading plant that sponsored the successful German racing driver in the road-and-carriage class, Siegfried Schauzu , a racing engine based on the BMW RS was manufactured in 1970. In 1978 Werner Fallert built a 120 hp 1.0-liter BMW boxer engine based on Apfelbeck's plans.

The standard work of engine tuning written by Apfelbeck, Paths to the High-Performance Four- Stroke Engine , ISBN 3-879-43578-2 , appeared in 1978 and has been reprinted many times since then. Based on this book, Hermann Weichsler created the work Valve Controls for High-Performance Engines in 1991 , ISBN 3-613-01272-3 , in which Apfelbeck and Weichsler are named as authors; this more recent work has been out of print for some time (as of June 2014).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patent AT150188B : cylinder head for mixture-compressing four-stroke internal combustion engines. Registered on December 20, 1935 , published on July 10, 1937 , applicant: Ludwig Apfelbeck, inventor: Ludwig Apfelbeck. ‌
  2. ↑ Patent DE1181490B : Device for driving valves of internal combustion engines hanging in a V-shape in the cylinder head. Registered on April 27, 1960 , published on November 12, 1964 , applicant: Bayerische Motoren-Werke Aktiengesellschaft, inventor: Ludwig Apfelbeck. ‌

source

literature

  • Ludwig Apfelbeck: Ways to high-performance four-stroke engines: A manual for fans and tuners of four-stroke engines . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart. 1st edition 1978. ISBN 3-879-43578-2
  • Ludwig Apfelbeck: Ways to high-performance four-stroke engines: A manual for fans and tuners of four-stroke engines . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-87943-578-2 .
  • Ludwig Apfelbeck, Hermann Weichsler: Valve controls for high-performance engines . 1st edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01272-3 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Apfelbeck, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian engine developer
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Knittelfeld
DATE OF DEATH March 5th 1987
Place of death Graz