Increasingly, the automotive industry is adapting to new, more rigorous efficiency standards and market forces by developing hybrid and electric vehicle technologies. At the same time, it is fair to assume that the internal combustion engine will remain with us for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, Grail Engine Technologies of Chapman, Kansas, is advancing the state of the art of the internal combustion two-stroke engine.

Today, larger vehicles, such as cars and trucks, use engines requiring four piston strokes to complete their thermodynamic cycle, while more energy-efficient two-stroke engines have typically been used for smaller products such as chainsaws. Grail Engine is moving toward the creation of a two-stroke car engine that can operate on multiple fuels, attain unheard of performance levels, and significantly reduce pollution compared to standard four-stroke engines. Capable of powering a vehicle over 100 miles on a single gallon of gas, the Grail engine operates on a wide range of combustible liquid and gaseous fuels.

Using Autodesk® Inventor® and Autodesk® Showcase® software, Grail Engine Technologies developed a digital prototype to design, visualize, and simulate its breakthrough invention, thereby reducing design time and the need for expensive physical prototypes. The comprehensive design and integrated simulation tools in Inventor helped the company improve the engine's volumetric efficiency and reduce its overall weight by 22 percent.

Grail Engine also developed detailed rendered images of the engine's internal working, illustrating the integrated cycles of the two-stroke engine. With Autodesk Showcase, Grail Engine used rendered images to market the engine design and promote the company vision to prospective investors and clients.

"The intuitive interface and out-of-the-box mechanical design features in Autodesk Inventor were crucial to the development of our engine," says Nicholas Bennington, president of Grail Engine Technologies. "Using the software meant we were able to design, analyze, and develop the Grail two-stroke internal combustion engine in months, rather than years. More than that, Autodesk's customer support and online help communities are second to none."

The company plans to implement Autodesk® Vault software to manage volumes of project data and control design revisions as the Grail engine is built. With the ability to digitally prototype the Grail engine, its creators plan to complete the design of this innovative engine in little over a year.