My profile

Learn more about me
and my activities


Personal:
- Born in 1941
- married since 1974 with Ulrike, Dentist
- 1. daughter Franka Elsbett Klumpers,
   Business economist
- 2. daughter Dr. Katrin Blanck, Veterinarian
- 4 grandchildren

My family (from left):
- Eva, daughter of Franka and
   Marco
- My wife Ulrike
- My daughter Franka
- Lars, son of Katrin and Nico
- Tom, son of Franka and Marco
- Marco, husband of Franka
- Carina, daughter of Katrin and
   Nico
- Myself
- My daughter Katrin
- Nico, husband of Katrin

Education:
- Apprenticeship metalworker, Huettenwerke Salzgitter
- Training as a technical designer in my father's company ELSBETT-MOTORS, Salzgitter
- Parallel: Evening school in Nuremberg, Technical Diploma
- Study of Mechanical Engineering, Nuremberg

After 1963:
Foundation of engineering company ELSBETT-KONSTRUKTION, based in Nuremberg
- First designs for new engine technologies
- Registration of my first patent: concept of an opposed piston engine

From 1964 onwards:
- My father, Ludwig Elsbett (died in 2003), terminates at MAN after 6 years as a senior engineer and joins my company ELSBETT KONSTRUKTION. The company MAN pays him licenses for the MAN-HM technology he developed. He buys an industrial property and we relocate the company’s headquarter to Hilpoltstein, near Nuremberg. Together, we are now building the company as an institute for research and development on combustion engines
- In the beginning only engine developments on behalf of MAN are carried out, as we are bound exclusively to this company for 3 years
- I have developed and manufactured measuring devices, e.g. a swirl test stand, an automatic fuel consumption measuring system and I also build a mechanical workshop, initially equipped with a lathe and a milling machine only. Thus, I am already producing improved engine components for tests, e.g. steel pistons, which are centrally fixed on the piston pin by a screw.
- In 1968, the first employees can be hired, the workshop is enlarged and test stands for truck engines are designed and set up by me

- My brother Max-Walter Elsbett also belongs to the team at a short notice, before he could be paid off to set up his own independent steelwork company.
- From 1969 onward: In the following years, many patent applications have been filed.
Today, I am the inventor or co-inventor of some hundreds of property rights.
A list can be found here on the website of the Patent Office. In the Applicant / Inventor mask, type only the name "Elsbett": You will then find more than 450 registered property rights.

After 1970:
After expanding the company and joining of my brother Klaus Elsbett, the family owned company ELSBETT KONSTRUKTION is picking up economic revival:
- New construction of a round hall with a diameter of 40m. Here, test parts and complete engines can be manufactured. I am responsible for the acquisition of more than 200 machines in the following years - many of them CNC-controlled. Also special tools and devices are designed by me. I have calculated the statics of the inwards inclined hall roof so that test vehicles can travel up to 3 tons in a circle without being seen from the outside
- set up a production line for small-scale production at least with the employment of more than 80 highly qualified employees
- Under my direction, the design office has been converted to CAD technology
- I plan and lead the construction of a fully automatic production line for the steel pistons which were developed by ELSBETT

- Development and production of the engine known as the Elsbett engine, the world's first direct-injection diesel for passenger cars in production. For this purpose, I have developed an injection system integrated in the cylinder head with a fully variable mechanical control system, which offers a previously not possible range of control possibilities. At the World Congress for Automotive Engineers FISITA 1984 in Vienna, I present this technique to a wide range of experts during a lecture at the Hofburg in Vienna.
- The Korean company Hyundai bought a license of the Elsbett technology including combustion process and steel pistons. A team of three Korean experts was stationed in Hilpoltstein for one year and was instructed and trained by me in our technology. Two passenger cars of the type “Hyundai Pony” were converted to direct injection and tested over long distances in Germany by test drivers. Unfortunately, it was not possible at that time to convince Bosch that diesel direct injection in cars has a future, so that the project failed due to the fact that Hyundai did not find a supplier for the necessary injection technology. This situation changed later, after European companies also dealt with car direct-injection engines. - I also develop engines and engine components on behalf of German automotive manufacturers, e.g. race-engine camshafts for BMW, which are designed and manufactured by us - research on alternative fuels, e.g. vegetable oil, and, on this basis, the development and manufacturing of corresponding engines (passenger cars, trucks, tractors, station operators, CHP combined heat and power)
- VW / Audi acquires a license for the Elsbett direct injection engine and engages me for the further development of the TDI for one year in Heilbronn
- I successfully carry out the design of an air-cooled two-cylinder engine for a DEUTZ subsidiary company in France

- In the years 1985 – 1986 I have designed and developed an airplane engine for the Nixdorf airplane fleet (the “Axial-Motor GmbH”, a fifty-fifty partnership between ELSBETT and NIXDORF, Paderborn was founded). Only one prototype (Diesel engine, 14-Cylinders axial opposed, with the swashplate in the center, 300 kW at 2200 rpm) was made and runs successful on testbench. Heinz Nixdorf died in 1986 and his company was sold to SIEMENS, who showed no interest in this project anymore

1988: 
- The Elsbett engine technology is more and more international and binds my technical activity for longer stays abroad, including:
- Planning of an engine production for passenger cars in Brazil
- Planning of an engine production for construction machines and tractors in Argentina
- Under my management, a complete technical documentation is produced for an engine production in Russia
- Planning of an engine production in India

1989: 
- Development of the so-called SWATCH engine (later SMART). For a few years I am cooperating with SMH in Biel, Switzerland. The prototype is manufactured and tested in Hilpoltstein, TÜV approval in Munich 1990.
The 10 kW Diesel Single cyl. engine integrated at that time some outstanding new technologies:
- Flywheel-Crankshaft gear ratio 2.5 : 1 for integrated leight-weight alternator
- Hydraulic valve actuation and variable timing
- Integrated mass balancing first and second order
- Steel pistons and Oil cooling (no water or air)

1990:
- After technical success in China I got the post as a guest professor at the Chinese Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province

From 1993 onwards:
- In 1993, the company Elsbett Konstruktion became financially turbulent and was sold. The Elsbett family retreats. Two years later, the new owner filed for insolvency - In 1995, I founded my own design office GET Günter Elsbett Technology, which I still operate today
- Also in 1995, together with my brother Klaus Elsbett, I founded Elsbett-Technologie GmbH in Thalmässing. After a few years, I decided to leave the company, but still keep active as a consultant
- I design a single cylinder for operation with palm oil in 1996/1997, spending several months at the Elsbett office in Kuala Lumpur

1998:
- Design of Stirling engines for EPAS GmbH, Leipzig. Here I am busy for several years on about 3 days a week. I lead the design and development and also become co-owner. Several Universities in Germany and private customers bought complete Stirling constructions running in combination with furnaces fired by wood pellets or running on solar energy-collecting receivers on roofs of buldings. Later - due to low commercial success - the EPAS company was sold to the very prosperous Austrian ENERGIEBIG, which is an innovative company in the field of photovoltaics.

- The Prignitz Railway Company is transforming its locomotive operations into running on vegetable oil and has entered into a contract with me for technical advice. During this time, I develop numerous practical solutions for the drive of rail vehicles

Since 2002:
The growing demand in China for my know-how in the field of engine technology is shifting my activities more and more to China:
- The engines designed by me have better fuel consumption, higher performance and reduced emissions. For these efforts I receive numerous awards in China

2003:
- In Leipzig, I am contacted by a group of businessmen who want to develop the idea of ​​an opposed piston engine (OPE) for decentralized energy generation. I am commissioned to create a feasibility study. In this I develop a series of new techniques, mainly the possibility of a four-stroke operation. However, the many efforts to market this concept remain unsuccessful
- In the hope that an implementation of the ideas will nevertheless be possible one day, I work on this technology on my own expense. In addition to the pursuit of my other activities, this leads to many new technical ideas and developments and a large number of presentations for many companies. Further technical progress is being made as a result of these efforts:
- Complete technical documentation including a complete CAD drawing set for an OPE prototype
- In order to explain the OPE functions mechanically better and to gain practical experience, I first make some functional models in Chinese workshops. The first functional tests with the newly developed liner control system are successful, but strongly hamper my other tasks. Therefore I decrease the further development for time and cost reasons

2004:
- I am initiating a university partnership between Jiangsu University and the Technical University Amberg-Weiden
- In this cooperation, a government-funded research project is successfully carried out, with ships on the Yangtze River being equipped with vegetable-oil engines. The corresponding engines of Chinese manufacturers are provided by me from my Chinese partner-companies.

2006:
I conclude a consultancy agreement with "Binzhou Piston", the largest piston manufacturer in China. At the symposium in Binzhou, all major Chinese engine companies will be there. I have presented the history of ELSBETT piston development and explainded especially the technology of steel pistons at this conference. 

2007:
- I am appointed "External Examiner" at Cardiff University, Wales. My task is the examination and acceptance of PHD (Dr.) theses in the field of physics (Thesis: Thermodynamic design of Stirling engines)
- Before the Olympic summer games in Beijing, I am converting some YaXing buses to run on vegetable oil

From 2011:
- May 2011: Due to the efforts of my partner in opposed piston engines (OPE), an English finance group paid him a down-payment for a license and offers me a performance-related payment for the development of a running GKM. As I assumed that the sum would cover my development costs and losses by restoring my normal job, I rented a workshop and installed a test bench to push the further development of the OPE to the desired goal
- December 2011: The prototype for functional tests is working well
- April 2012: Completion of the project by successful runs and durability tests of the OPE prototype. I am getting the agreed payment of the potential investor, which, however, leaps back when he does not find a company that is seriously interested in this technology, although its function is now proven
- OPE further developments, presentations and technical elaborations now happen again at my own risk and expense
- May 2013: Presentation of my OPE concept at the International CIMAC Congress in Shanghai
- More than a dozen patent rights for this GKM technology have been developed by me within the outline data of this project      

At present:
- Continuing and further concentration of my activities in China: consultancy contracts with several companies and teaching activity, e.g. Jiangsu University, Nantong University.
- Annually approximately 8 trips and 120 days stay in China
- Parallel to this in Germany, currently at own risk: Further reduced work for the opposed piston engine technology; The prototype, which was already made for the duration of the function test, is presently being stored due to lack of interest, but can be rebuilt on a test bench if necessary.
- I also develop some concepts for sustainable use of marine energy and technologies to avoid the consequences of an oil spill (see projects)

Some important awards:
- Dissertation Award by Technical High-School, Cordoba/Argentina (1988),
- Philip Morris Award „Challenge Future“, Germany (1989),
- European Solar Prize by EUROSOLAR, Bonn / Germany (1997),
- Huangshan Award, the highest award for foreign experts in Anhui Province / Hefei / China (2011),
- Friendship Award as the highest award for foreigners in China by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Beijing / China (2012)