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crankshaft

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crankshaft

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Also known as crank shaft

thumb|upright=1.2|Crankshaft (red), pistons (gray), cylinders (blue) and flywheel (black)

AI overview

A crankshaft is a rotating metal shaft inside an engine that converts the up-and-down motion of pistons into rotational motion, which ultimately powers the wheels of a vehicle. It's essential to how engines work because without it, the linear movement of pistons couldn't be transformed into the spinning action needed to drive machinery.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~10 min read

Encyclopedic overview

18 sections
Contents
  • Design
  • Bearings
  • Piston stroke
  • Cross-plane and flat-plane configurations
  • Engine balance
  • Flying arms
  • Counter-rotating crankshafts
  • Eccentricity and dynamic displacement of diesel engines
  • Construction
  • Forged crankshafts
  • Cast crankshafts
  • Machined crankshafts
  • History
  • Crankshaft
  • See also
  • References
  • Sources
  • External links

thumb|upright=1.2|Crankshaft (red), pistons (gray), cylinders (blue) and flywheel (black)

A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecting rods.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “crankshaft” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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