What is crankshaft?

  • (noun): A rotating shaft driven by (or driving) a crank.

Crankshaft

The crankshaft, sometimes abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine that translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation. To convert the reciprocating motion into rotation, the crankshaft has "crank throws" or "crankpins", additional bearing surfaces whose axis is offset from that of the crank, to which the "big ends" of the connecting rods from each cylinder attach.

Read more about Crankshaft.

Some articles on crankshaft:

Harmonic Damper - Need
... Without the presence of a damper a long crankshaft will tend to act as a torsional spring to some extent ... Impulses applied to the crankshaft by the connecting rods will tend to "wind" this spring, which will respond (as a spring-mass system) by unwinding and re-w ... This will usually be damped out naturally, but at certain crankshaft rotational speeds the impulses from the cylinder firing can be in synchronization with the natural resonant frequency ...
Harmonic Damper
... A harmonic damper is a device fitted to the free (accessory drive) end of the crankshaft of an internal combustion engine ... It is essential in engines with long crankshafts (such as straight-8 engines) and is present on most engines as it reduces torsional vibrations that tend to peak at ... Torsional vibrations can greatly reduce crankshaft life, if not cause instantaneous failure, if the crankshaft runs at or through resonance ...
London Steam Carriage - Description
... the distance between the single cylinder and the crankshaft and was considered a singular innovation at the time ... The motion of the piston was transmitted to a separate crankshaft via the forked piston rod ... The crankshaft drove the axle of the driving wheel (which was fitted with a flywheel) via a spur gear ...
Two-cylinder Engine
... The cylinders and the crankshaft which drives the pistons can be configured in various ways ... engine, with two cylinders in parallel sharing a crankshaft V-twin engine, two cylinders sharing a crankshaft at an angle Flat-twin engine, having both cylinders on the same crankshaft at 180° to each other U engine ...