Ricardo Consulting Engineers
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Ricardo Engineering Consultants, or Ricardo as it is often more simply known, is a publicly listed company named after its founder Sir Harry Ricardo, which creates designs for specialist or advanced combustion engines used particularly in the automotive and aerospace industries.
It is a specialist and does not mass-produce engines, although many of its designs are quietly incorporated into the production of well-known, high-volume brands.
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[edit] Company
The company was one of several founded by Sir Harry Ricardo; it was incorporated on 30 June 1927 at Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England. Its main facilities are now at:
- Shoreham-by-Sea (head office) [1]
- Royal Leamington Spa
- Cambridge
- North America (Chicago and Detroit Technical Centers)
- Germany
- Czech Republic
- Japan
- China
- Korea
- Italy
[edit] Notable designs
- the Comet series of diesel engines. One of the earliest types of indirect injection system, the Comet's 'swirl' chambers made high-speed diesel engines practical. First used in AEC London Buses, and the 1935 Citroen Rosalie passenger car, its pre-combustion system is still used in today's diesel engines and has been improved over the decades
- gas turbine Barostat fuel supply systems for jet engines, in conjunction with Sir Frank Whittle
- the draft sensing three point linkage used by tractors. Ricardo's innovation was to automate it so that it is only operational when moving
- investigations into the Stirling engine for fuel-efficiency - commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1978, it has scope for use in hybrid engines
- the Voyager's Teledyne Continental aircraft engine, modified to fly around the world non-stop without refuelling
- direct fuel-injection systems for aircraft and automobile engines
- transmissions and engines for motor sport and speed records, notably the consistently-successful Audi 24 Hours of Le Mans team, the JCB Dieselmax diesel land speed record holder, and the DSG-type gearbox of the Bugatti Veyron.
