Electromechanical valve actuation revisited.Thierry Morin, chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Valeo (www.valeo.com) says electromechanical The use of electricity to run moving parts. Disk drives, printers and motors are examples. Electromechanical systems must be designed for the eventual deterioration of moving components that wear over time. The first TVs were electromechanical systems (see video/TV history). valve actuation is--at most--16 months away from full production feasibility. "Unfortunately," he adds, "OEMs are not as ready," though Valeo has in place development contracts with a American and a European automaker. "The earliest we will see it," he says, "is 2008 in a low-volume application." James Schwyn, Valeo's R & O director--North America, says the problems with noise and size have been largely eliminated. "The diesel-like clatter clat·ter v. clat·tered, clat·ter·ing, clat·ters v.intr. 1. To make a rattling sound. 2. To move with a rattling sound: clattering along on roller skates. is gone," he claims, "and the system is designed to fit under current valve covers." This has been accomplished through the use of small damper springs that soften the deceleration deceleration /de·cel·er·a·tion/ (de-sel?er-a´shun) decrease in rate or speed. early deceleration of the valve at each end of its stroke. In addition, more sophisticated control algorithms lessen the load while still giving infinitely variable valve lift and phasing independent of piston movement. These changes also make the units able to operate in all weather conditions. Valeo claims the system--which would be applied to the inlet valves directly--on average would reduce fuel consumption and emissions by 20%, and increase torque by the same amount. Further, not only does this system eliminate the camshafts, drive chains/belts, cam phasers, and drive gears/pulleys, it also eliminates their rotational mass, parasitic losses, and cost. "An electromechanical valve system will be more expensive at first," says Morin, "but prices will drop dramatically as volumes increase. Even in low volumes such a system is much, much less expensive than hybrid drive A hard disk drive that contains a built-in, non-volatile cache comprised of flash memory. Reads and writes go through the cache first, enabling the platters to remain at rest most of the time. For laptop computers especially, the less the disk rotates, the less power is used. ." Also, though 42-volt electrical systems were designed to handle the load of just such a valve train Valve train The valves and valve-operating mechanism by which an internal combustion engine takes air or fuel-air mixture into the cylinders and discharges combustion products to the exhaust. , Schwyn says Valeo has eliminated the need by packaging an efficient OC-to-DC converter that takes the 14-volts produced by a vehicle's electrical system and steps it up to 42 volts. "You don't have to tear up to rip up; to remove from a fixed state by violence; as, to tear up a floor; to tear up the foundation of government or order s>. See also: Tear the electrical architecture or heavily modify the engine to run our system," he says.--CAS |
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