A wax motor is a very powerful linear actuator that is powered by any source of heat, and converts the thermal expansion of wax into a short linear movement.
I cut one from a water valve actuator in half so we could look inside.
Original video:-
https://youtu.be/uPuvhnIoz2g
It's been suggested by Jacob that the copper powder might be to fine tune the amount of expansion to the application. The copper itself will not expand much with heat.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
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I cut one from a water valve actuator in half so we could look inside.
Original video:-
https://youtu.be/uPuvhnIoz2g
It's been suggested by Jacob that the copper powder might be to fine tune the amount of expansion to the application. The copper itself will not expand much with heat.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Thank you for this video. I have a question – does that mean when I set room thermostat temperature to e.g. 22 Celcius, this actuator's element is heated to just some specific temperature, so it opens just as much as needed a flow rate to reach 22 in a heating circuit? Or, it works just as 'on-off' switch and fully opens and fully closes as in operation? Does it consume energy when fully open / fully closed?
I think the fact that there's copper in the wax would likely mean that it's used to distribute/spread the heat quickly throughout the wax, so as to not have the wax nearest the heating element at a significantly higher temperature than the rest. That heat energy will spread evenly much in the same way that it does in a copper-bottomed stove pot/skillet. And pretty much for the same reason — even heat spread. Otherwise, why use copper? They'd most likely use steel or some cheaper metal before they'd use copper, unless they're specifically trying to make use of copper's phenomenal thermal conductivity. Copper is damn near as thermally conductive as silver, and copper is far less costly than silver. In the world of computing, the best CPU coolers have a copper plate on them where they make contact with the CPU lid — to move that heat quickly away from the CPU. And the best of the best, when it comes to thermal grease placed between the cooler and the CPU, contains real silver particles.
Interesting how using bulk properties are more reliable and ingenious design. Material science is cool.
Great vid.
They are used in car thermostats and the chokes of some carburetors.
Grove on the shaft is to pick up dirt and dust preventin jaming.
Same thing in meney weapon (bolt and gas pistons) and mechanical parts.
Interesting.
Thanks for that.
I occasionally still pull something to bits to see how it works, but you have taken it to a whole new level for us in this and your other videos.
Keep them coming.
Thank you for this video! As you mentioned, there are no images of the inside of a wax motor that I can find. Do you think you could do the inside of an automatic vent opener? A wax motor in cylinder form.
This guy is a pimp.
TY ! yeah indeed a very interesting piece of engineering
I just love your voice and your sense of humor 🙂
I missed the "motor" part in the video, where was it? 🙂
About the copper in the wax, it's a solid state throttle. The copper would be used for the same principle of starting an engine cold or hot, based on the conditions of the wax, and the copper being a conductor, closer or further apart as the wax is heated, increasing the resistance of the wax's conductivity; it's a thermally conditional power regulator, when it's cold, it conducts the best, when it's hot, it has the highest resistance and conducts the worst.
reason not to solder to heating element… because its operation will melt the solder.
Would this not work as a radiator valve??
it would be interesting to make a candle with that wax
I would think that the copper would be for thermal transfer to speed up heating and cooling