Once again this year as a public service, your humble tech director has plied the seemingly ever-shrinking aisles of auto-industry supplier booths handing out free pens and breath mints so you don’t have to. I’ve ferreted out the choicest technologies that promise a brighter, greener, peppier future for the automobilist. And drivers take heart—only one of them involves autonomous driving!
Advanced Engine Dynamics Multifire engine
What it is
A tiny 330-pound, gasoline-powered, two-stroke, opposed-piston, eight-cylinder axial engine.
What it does
Produces more than 660 lb-ft per liter (!) at 750 rpm in a compact package that purportedly has 70 percent fewer precision-machined parts (no valvetrain) and hence could be one-tenth as costly to build as a conventional engine of similar output.
Why it’s interesting
“Better mousetrap” engines are always fascinating. This one swaps a conventional crankshaft for a pair of rotating discs on a common shaft. Each of these discs has a wave-form “cam” of sorts on the side facing the pistons and combustion chambers. At the bottom of each piston connecting rod is a roller that rides up this wave for compression and exhaust and pushes down against it for the power stroke. Relative to a conventional rotating crankshaft, the shape of the wave permits more optimal piston dynamics so that compression builds differently, there can be more dwell at the bottom for exhaust scavenging, and the power stroke can be longer. A low-pressure (1.5-5.0 psi) supercharger provides scavenging air that helps push the exhaust out via ports that are exposed near the bottom of the piston’s stroke. After the intake ports are closed, there’s about 10.0:1 compression in the spark-ignited guise that has been tested to date (a diesel variant is in the works with higher compression), and fuel is injected nearer the top of the stroke at 1,200 psi. All bearings are roller-type, so no oil pressure is required, just oil supply to these bearings, and rings are the only sliding-friction wear items (and even they never experience any of the tilt that can occur with a rotating crankshaft). Brake-specific fuel consumption is said to undercut Ford’s best EcoBoost engines by 15 percent and Toyota’s best Atkinson-cycle engine by 7 percent. And without the concentrated heat of a cylinder head, combustion temperatures are said to be way lower, which should simplify the emissions aftertreatment.
When it might hit the road
Although this engine might be cheaper to build, almost none of the equipment and processes used to build today’s inline and vee engines would carry over, so it’s a long, long shot for mass-market passenger-vehicle fitment.
Nautilus HCCI Engine
What it is
A gasoline-powered engine promising diesel or better economy with very low engine-out emissions through the use of homogeneous-charge compression ignition (HCCI).
What it does
Replaces the pistons and cylinder heads of a conventional engine and feeds the engine via a single fuel injector to provide full-time HCCI engine operation.
Why it’s interesting
GM, Hyundai, and others have sought to commercialize the concept by adapting gasoline engines to run without using their spark plugs during certain optimal operating conditions. The folks at Nautilus Engineering in Wichita, Kansas, are working on a scratch-built HCCI engine with a unique piston and combustion chamber. In the center of the piston stands a smaller piston (maybe 1 inch diameter on a 3.25-inch piston) that plunges up into a recess in the top of the cylinder. The main mechanical compression ratio is 10.5:1, but when that little piston enters its little chamber, the local compression inside increases to double or more at about top-dead-center of the piston travel. That’s sufficient to reliably ignite the localized air-fuel charge, sending the piston back down and igniting the remainder of the charge. Because such engines require a homogeneous air-fuel mixture, a single high-pressure, high-atomization injector introduces the fuel to the airbox plenum to ensure that it’s thoroughly mixed when it enters the cylinder. Engine speed is regulated by fuel flow, and at light load operation, air-fuel ratios of 24:1-31:1 are believed to be possible, raising thermal efficiency to above 50 percent. Low combustion temperatures (1,200 F or lower) dramatically reduce NOx formation, so normal gas engine aftertreatment should be sufficient.
When it might hit the road
As of SAE week the patent-protected engine had only “run” in computer simulation. A two-cylinder test engine is under construction and was expected to be running within eight to 10 weeks. The optimistic engineering team reckons that automotive production could then follow in as little as three to five years—and indeed, no extensive retooling is required, so, maybe!
Toyota uBox Concept
What it is
An electric car optimized for millennial buyers. It’s also the sixth Deep Orange concept car collaboration between Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research and the ArtCenter College of Design, and this time Toyota provided mentoring.
What it does
Introduces some novel carbon-fiber production techniques.
Why it’s interesting
The uBox’s roof rails are made of curved carbon-fiber pultrusions. Never heard of a pultrusion? Neither had we, but the process generally involves pulling carbon-woven carbon fiber and resin through a hot die to form a mostly cured straight tube of some shape that liquid metals might otherwise be extruded (pushed through a die) into. Companies such as ACP Composites currently pultrude tubes used to manipulate model aircraft control surfaces, for example. The Deep Orange team has managed to innovate a method to curve these pultrusions by altering the way they’re pulled through the die.
When it might hit the road
Hopefully before these students begin calling the shots at a car company.
EMBATT Structurally Integrated Battery
What it is
A structurally strong electrical storage device.
What it does
The actual anode, cathode, and electrolyte—not just the box they ride in—contribute to the mechanical structure of a chassis.
Why it’s interesting
Making the battery structural inherently improves the energy density of the storage battery. Today’s typical pack consists of groupings of modules composed of some number of cells with space around each of these subgroups occupied by wiring, electronics, and cooling systems. According to IAV’s Karsten Müller, the typical battery package envelope contains 35 percent or less active battery material. The EMBATT structural battery hopes to up that to 80 percent. IAV’s Wolfgang Reimann says this will permit “significantly more compact energy storage solutions with energy densities of 450 Wh/l and therefore ranges of up to 1000 km are realizable.” Engineering consultancy IAV is collaborating with ThyssenkKrupp System Engineering GmbH and Fraunhofer IKTS on this project. And according to Mareike Wolter of Fraunhofer IKTS, the price of these denser batteries could be reduced to $225/kW-hr. The first prototype of this bipolar battery system uses a lithium-titanate anode, a nickel/manganese/cobalt cathode, and a liquid electrolyte, but to remove the complicated sealing this requires, the next phase version will migrate to different materials that work with a solid electrolyte.
When it might hit the road
Müller says the first samples should be fully functional in 2020 with production possible three to five years later.
IAV Connected Highly Automated Golf
What it is
A stock Volkswagen augmented with a few more off-the-shelf sensors and a bunch of custom software.
What it does
Provides Tesla Autopilot levels of highly automated driving, including adaptive cruise, lane keeping, and highway lane changing when the driver activates a turn signal.
Why it’s interesting
Engineering consulting firm IAV is demonstrating its vehicle integration chops here by showing that it can upgrade a stock Golf to provide semi-autonomy, not over the air but with silicon. It’s demonstrated in a Golf wagon with a cargo hold full of computer gear, but that’s just so that functions can be added and modified with ease to show other functionality, such as pedestrian avoidance when pedestrians wear Microsoft Band wearables, the Microsoft Cortana voice-command personal assistant, and a Microsoft-powered instrument readout that replicates smartphone content when the vehicle is operating semi-autonomously. When a customer decides upon a feature set, the trunkload of gear gets burned to a silicon chip.
When it might hit the road
One to three years.
Pacific Northwest National Labs Metal Forming Processes
What it is
A new process to join varying thickness aluminum sheet into a “tailor welded blank” (TWB) that can be stamped, and a hot-gas forming method for generating complicated shapes in high-strength metals.
What it does
Enables further weight reduction of metal parts.
Why it’s interesting
TWB: Laser welding steels of different thickness to optimize local strength has been commonplace for some time, but aluminum can’t always tolerate the heat generated in most welding operations and still be stamped. The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Labs devised a friction-stir welding process that will soon be able to join 1mm and 2mm sheets of 5182 alloy aluminum at a rate of 9.8 feet per minute. A door inner panel stamped with such a sheet (thicker near the hinges, thinner elsewhere) is 62 percent lighter and 25 percent cheaper than a conventional door inner panel.
Hot-Gas Forming: It’s much easier to weld the edges of two flat sheets of metal together than it is to join two stamped halves of, say, an exhaust manifold. PNNL’s innovation here is to weld the sheets flat, including a metal “straw,” then heat them to roughly half the metal’s melting point and inflate the resulting metal balloon with argon gas at just about 100 psi. Or join multiple sheets, spot welding adjacent layers in different spots, and inflate the resulting part to resemble an inflatable pool toy. Titanium sheets inflated this way are being developed for hydrogen storage or even to replace aluminum honeycomb in applications such as airplane floors. And superplastic hot-gas forming has been developed to allow materials such as magnesium to survive very deep draw forming operations.
When it might hit the road
Soon. General Motors, Alcoa, and TWB Company LLC collaborated on developing the friction-stir welding tailor welded blank, and TWB holds the license to produce that one, and the hot-gas forming should follow closely.
Oakridge National Labs AMIE Demonstration Vehicle
What it is
The Department of Energy’s Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy demonstration vehicle.
What it does
Further demonstrates what’s possible with additive manufacturing (aka 3-D printing) while showing off a natural-gas-powered PHEV drivetrain that plugs in and stores solar energy during the day and gives that power back to the home as needed at night.
Why it’s interesting
Both the vehicle and the single-room “tiny house” it was designed to work with and partially power are constructed using additive manufacturing. The home uses low-cost vacuum-insulated panels and is topped with a 3.2-kW solar array. Its smart power controller utilizes a newly developed fast-charging bidirectional Level 2 wireless power transfer system to permit the vehicle to store excess energy during peak sunshine hours and then to give it back during times of peak usage or minimal sunshine.
When it might hit the road
As shown here? Never. But the wireless bidirectional Level 2 charger will probably find its way into production within a few years.
Jatco CVT7
What it is
The latest enhancement of the Van Doorne push belt type continuously variable transmission suitable for front-drive vehicles powered by 1.8-liter or smaller engines.
What it does
Increases the ratio spread to 8.7 in a package that’s 13 percent lighter, 10 percent narrower in package width, and generates 30 percent less friction for an overall fuel efficiency improvement of 3 percent (on NEDC tests).
Why it’s interesting
By redesigning the push belt with thinner individual elements, the belt can now wrap around a tighter, smaller diameter, and by increasing the stiffness of the pulleys, they can now clamp the belt farther out at the large-diameter end without the flex that sometimes required extra hydraulic pressure to compensate. Some cost was therefore taken out of the hydraulic pump, offsetting the added cost of the belt for a cost-neutral design.
When it might hit the road
It is already in production in Nissan’s China-market Lannia compact.
Eastman Saflex Q Series Wedge PVB
What it is
A new wedge-shaped polyvinyl butyral windshield inner layer for head-up displays.
What it does
Prevents the ghosting or double vision that can occur when viewing a HUD image from an especially high or low viewing angle (tall or short people).
Why it’s interesting
As manufacturers introduce ever-larger head-up displays and show concepts for augmented reality displays (where the nav system “paints” the road with directional arrows and such) or Land Rover’s invisible hood, which projects an image of the ground beneath the front of the vehicle, ghosting or double vision will become a bigger problem. The variable-thickness wedge-shaped windshield inner layer promises to eliminate this problem.
When it might hit the road
It’s essentially production-ready and simply waiting to be incorporated in a production vehicle plan.
FEV 3-cylinder Mockup
What it is
A test bed for developing radical downsizing and down speeding of internal combustion engines.
What it does
Incorporates roller bearings for the camshaft and the front and rear of the crankshaft with friction-optimized journal bearings in between, two-stage variable compression, and active engine mounts to counteract NVH issues.
Why it’s interesting
Extreme downsizing and downspeeding of engines is one of the many ways manufacturers will meet ever-tightening fuel economy and CO2 regulations. An FEV innovation on the research engine is a system of observing injector spray patterns and flame propagation using three scopes pointed at different spots in the combustion chamber. Using roller bearings for the entire cam and crank can reduce brake-specific fuel consumption by 3 to 4 percent but at the cost of added noise. This development engine examines ways to combat this.
When it might hit the road
Various elements will arrive at different times, but the variable compression system unveiled last year is likely to hit production in 2020.
Pittsburgh Glass Works Sungate EP
What it is
A new infrared-repelling automotive glass treatment.
What it does
Reduces the amount of cabin-warming sunlight penetrating the glass from 32 percent down to just 3 percent.
Why it’s interesting
This clever reimagining of the sun-screening silver material used in most such films slashes the amount of infrared energy entering the cabin while preserving the 70 percent transmissibility of visible light, making it legal for use in all glazing, even windows ahead of the B-pillar. This can be expected to dramatically reduce the load placed on a vehicle’s climate-control system (a benefit that cannot be detected during official fuel economy and emissions testing), so it qualifies for a generous 3.0 g/mile CO2 off-cycle credit on cars, 4.3 g/mile on trucks. This helps justify the material’s higher (but as yet undisclosed) cost relative to lesser sun screens.
When it might hit the road
PGW says it has an active development program with at least one OEM, so expect to see it within one product development cycle in a few years.
FEV 5DCT transmission
What it is
A low-cost, higher-efficiency, refined transmission for developing markets.
What it does
Delivers the seamless shift quality of a planetary automatic with the efficiency of a manual.
Why it’s interesting
By combining a host of off-the-shelf bearings, synchronizers, park-lock systems, dual wet-clutch assemblies, and parts, this compact five-speed twin-clutch transmission becomes an affordable option for city cars in developing markets.
When it might hit the road
The high degree of production parts makes this available almost immediately.
Inficon Ecotec E3000
What it is
A multifunction leak detector.
What it does
It can sniff out the tiniest of fuel and climate-control refrigerant leaks at the end of a vehicle assembly line to prevent a potential fire-hazard, ozone-depleting, and A/C-function-reducing refrigerant leak.
Why it’s interesting
Until now there was no single detector that could sniff fuel and multiple A/C refrigerants (i.e. R134a and the 1234yf that is gradually replacing it) reliably without giving false alarms for washer fluid, radiator coolant, Loctite, etc. And these are slow, tiny leaks we’re talking about, such that if the coupling were submerged in water, it might take 30 minutes for a bubble to form. Suppliers guarantee their components to be free of leaks, but the plant must verify that the connections between these components and the related plumbing are secure. Having a single reliable tester for fuel and coolant greatly simplifies this task.
When it might hit the road
The gas-analysis hardware needed for this application was developed for use in manufacturing silicon semiconductor chips, so it is available now.
Read about the coolest tech highlights from the 2015 SAE Show RIGHT HERE
The post Nerd Futures: Top 13 Tech Highlights From the 2016 SAE Show appeared first on Motor Trend.
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