There are a lot of nice compact superchargers out there these day intended for automotive applications, some are even almost affordable. The centrifugal types particularly are very compact for their output but they do need about 50,000 rpm to do their job. Most have an internal 3:1 step up drive built in, but at the the typical aircaft engines rpm of 2500 or so, one would need a huge drive pulley to make them work. Now I have a hypothetical situation here where I would like to drive one of these at about 50,000 rpm from 2500. In other words a 20 : 1 step up drive (not counting the step up drive built in). And, now let's assume a turbocharger won't work in this application. Also at those revs, stopping the engine suddenly will instantly snap any drive shaft from the inertia of the impeller unless we put in some kind of sprague clutch or similar. I was wondering if anyone out there has experience with perhaps industrial drives or something that could be adapted for this. Compactness is important and off-the-shelf components that could be made to work with some basic lathework.
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
