Caprotti valve gear [SEP] discoverer or inventor
Caprotti valve gear
The Caprotti valve gear is a type of steam engine valve gear invented in the early 1920s by Italian architect and engineer Arturo Caprotti. It uses camshafts and poppet valves rather than the piston valves used in other valve gear. While basing his design on automotive valves, Caprotti made several significant departures from this design to adapt the valves for steam. Having agreed a joint-venture with Worcester-based engineering company Heenan & Froude from 1938, Heenan & Froude fully acquired Caprotti post-World War II in 1947
Briefly popular in the United States around 1920. It had elements of the Baker patterns, but dispensed with the combination lever of the Walschaerts.
Valve gear designs Poppet valve gears.
- Caprotti valve gear, British Caprotti valve gear
- Hugo Lentz, oscillating-cam valve gear, rotary-cam valve gear
- Franklin oscillating-cam valve gear
- Franklin rotary-cam valve gear
- Reidinger valve gear
Valve gear designs Conjugating gears.
These enable a 3-cylinder or 4-cylinder locomotive to be built with only