Richard Kitchens

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Richard Küchen (born March 15, 1898 in Bielefeld , † October 5, 1974 in Ingolstadt ) was a German engineer whose services are particularly in the field of motorcycles and motorcycle engines.

education and study

Küchen first completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic and, at the same time, passed the secondary school leaving certificate. In 1912 he started at Westfalia Automobilwerke in Rheda-Wiedenbrück , a little later he switched to Hansa-Lloyd and in 1915 he went to Brown & Boveri in Mannheim as a technical draftsman . As early as 1916 he switched to the Badische Maschinenfabrik in Mannheim as a designer and in 1917 to Schütte-Lanz , where airships were built for the imperial air force. To avoid being drafted, Küchen enrolled at the TH Darmstadt and studied mechanical engineering. At the same time he trained pilots as a flight instructor.

Engine construction

Time between wars

In 1918 he went into business for himself with engine design and production. The first own "K-Motor" was a liquid-cooled two-stroke engine. In between, in 1920, Küchen passed the examination as a master electrician. In 1922, the first “K four-stroke” was a 350 ohv single-cylinder, which implemented an oil supply for the valve train via bumpers with light wood filling as a special feature. This engine was first built as a two-valve engine and later as a three-valve engine. It can no longer be determined today whether the four-valve engine advertised as a racing engine ever existed. But a variant of the 350 three-valve engine held a permanent world record in its class set in 1925 for years. From 1924 the K motors were manufactured by the Schiele-Bruchsal industrial works in Baden-Baden and from 1927 by the Heilbronn mechanical engineering company . In 1928 the best-known K-engine was created: a three-valve engine in which all three valves were controlled with a single cam on a vertical camshaft that was reminiscent of a vertical shaft via rocker arms and rocker arms.

Production in Heilbronn continued when Küchen went to Triumph in Nuremberg in 1931 . In the event of Triumph, he was lured away by Zündapp boss Neumeyer in the same year . There he invented, among other things, a countercurrent two-stroke flushing system , the "three- flow flushing". On the other hand, DKW successfully sued for patent infringement and reached a settlement, i. That is, Zündapp had to pay six Reichsmarks for each engine built. Kitchens developed a whole series for Zündapp with smooth, aesthetically pleasing motors from 200 to 800 cubic centimeters in a box frame . At the end of 1934, a dispute between production manager Erich Zipprich and Richard Küchen had widened to such an extent that Küchen gave up and switched to DKW's biggest competitor. At DKW designed kitchens u. a. the NZ series and the RT 125, but also the first SS 250.

In 1936 he went to Victoria .

In World War II

Since Küchen, as in the First World War, had nothing to do with military service, he was conscripted for service at Zündapp from 1937 . He became known there in particular for the construction of the Wehrmacht team Zündapp KS 750 , especially the sidecar drive, which was also used in the BMW team. In addition, he was involved in the construction of a so-called explosive tank (a remote-controlled small tank) called Goliath .

Post-war years

Victoria Bergmeister

In the post-war period after the Second World War , the entire Küchen family came to Ingolstadt , where in 1946 Küchen took over a partially destroyed barracks building with a vehicle hall and a huge outdoor area. In addition to the mechanical production, kitchens also set up apartments for the employees here, so that in 1947 already 70 employees found work and living space here. Under the name Motomak Motoren- und Maschinenbau Küchen, he overhauled and produced crankshafts for DKW passenger cars. In addition, potato presses and precision turned parts were also manufactured. In addition, Kitchens opened a Volkswagen agency. As of 1950, Küchen started to build engines again, including a vertical shaft single cylinder for Tornax , a V2 for the Victoria V 35 Bergmeister and the stylishly beautiful "Hoffmann Gouverneur" motorcycle with a 2-cylinder four-stroke boxer engine and cardan drive as well as two-stroke engines for the tree saw manufacturer Baker & Polling . In 1964 Motomak was bought by the automotive supplier Schaeffler . Here, Küchen developed a bucket tappet with hydraulic valve clearance compensation, which was first used in series production worldwide in the Porsche 928. Still full of zest for action, the 67-year-old Küchen ran his company Hammerstein Blitzschutzbau until his death.

From 1949, Küchen developed a light metal V8 engine that was used in some AFM (racing cars) .

rating

Overall, kitchens became known for the construction of externally impressive motors, which, however, were often problematic due to construction deficits or overstrained the material. His specialties included the so-called kitchen engine, a V8 light-alloy racing engine with which Hans Stuck achieved some successes in his AFM-50-4 "kitchen" between 1950 and 1953, but also chain drives, which are more elastic than gear drives was said.

Kitchens put form over function. With the “ Victoria V 35 Bergmeister ”, for example, he accepted unnecessarily long and narrow intake paths in favor of the smooth housing shape of the engine, which reduced engine performance and led to thermal problems.

A contemporary saying was: "Kitchen constructions do not have complete cooling!"

swell

Oldtimer Markt, 4/2009, pp. 208–215

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kitchens, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Bielefeld
DATE OF DEATH 5th October 1974
Place of death Ingolstadt