Willy den CGI
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2000
- Location
- Sweden
Car.fanatics
The Peugeot 407 Elixir - A hint at the Future
Petrol and diesel editions will be available, including a flagship oil-burner with a 2.7-litre V6 co-developed with Ford. Entry-level cars will use a 1.8-litre petrol unit and cost around £14,500. The 407 saloon is expected to debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September and arrive here next March, with the estate following three months later. Load-lugging 406s are already popular, and Peugeot hopes the 407 SW will take 40 per cent of the range's sales. Dynamic and innovative styling - points to future models.
Twin wishbone suspension front and rear.
Large glass roof panel - as seen on 307 SW.
Six-cylinder, 2,700cc diesel engine.
next year.
Power for the 407 Elixir is provided by an all-new, 6-cylinder 2,700cc HDi diesel engine. This engine features the latest-generation particulate emission filter, ensuring automatic regeneration without any mileage limitations. The maximum power developed by this DT17 type diesel engine is 148 kW (more than 200 bhp), with a maximum torque figure of 440 Nm ( more torque/cylindervolume than the new Audi 3 liter V6.) Both are made with blocks in the new enginematerial CGI.
<font color="red"> Compacted graphite iron is top prospect </font>
Lightweight products aren’t always manufactured from light weight materials because performance often is a trade-off between weight and strength. Nowhere is this clearer than in the looming battle between aluminum and Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) for dominance in cylinder blocks and heads for next-generation vehicles.
Today the battle is fully joined in the lightweight automotive diesel arena where CGI’s superior strength (it’s nearly twice as strong as gray cast iron) gives it a major advantage. CGI diesel engines are both lighter and more compact than any other materials used in cylinder block production.
Because CGI is such an obvious candidate for next-generation engines, the Lamb Technicon division of UNOVA Industrial Automation Systems began working several years ago with the leading supplier of CGI casting systems, SinterCast of Sweden, to understand the unique machining characteristics of this material. The first opportunity to put the knowledge gained to work came from Ford U.K. which announced their plan to put an automotive diesel engine using a CGI cylinder block into production.
Lamb won the machining system contract for the new block, but cost and timing issues dictated a conventional low-speed/high-feed tooling approach, although the machines and fixtures were fully CGI-capable. This fact, however, makes the new block system a prime candidate for the next generation of high-speed CGI tooling as it becomes available, and those tools are now almost ready.
Is CGI worth it?
Until now, the price for this improved performance has been a more complex tool that requires specialized maintenance. That is why rotary tools have thus far found only a limited range of applications on gray iron where the productivity gains are sufficient to justify the tools’ complexity.
CGI is a different story, however. The productivity gains in this material easily justify the additional cost and complexity of rotary tools. Even more important, rotary tools make it practical to machine CGI at high speeds for the first time. Still, other issues, including reliability and the physical size of the tools, remained for the Lamb development team.
Actually, reliability and size are closely linked. As the Lamb team applied advanced computer modeling and analysis technologies to make the tools more reliable, it became easier to downsize them as well. After more than 5 years of work, rotary boring tools can now handle bores as small as 70 mm, and 40 mm bores will be possible in the future
Will the changeover to CGI be worth the price? The answer is almost certainly yes. Using the new Ford cylinder block system as an example, a relatively simple retrofit with Lamb’s rotary tooling system can possibly deliver significantly increased tool life while running at speeds up to 1,000 m/min. Compare that to today’s 150 m/min. and the benefits of rotary tooling technology are obvious.
Lighter, more efficient engines are an absolute necessity for the automotive industry, and high-performance diesels and bio-diesels could mount a major challenge to conventional gasoline power plants. Those diesels will depend on CGI blocks and possibly heads, and putting them into high-volume production will depend on practical, reliable high-speed machining systems.
But that’s not the end of the story. As new casting techniques come on line to permit wall thickness less than 3 mm, CGI may well become the material of choice for truly lightweight, and extremely compact gasoline engines as well as diesels. Here again, reliable, high-speed machining systems will be the key to making the next generation of automobile engines practical and cost-effective.
Diesel or gasoline, or some hybrid of the two, it’s a very good bet that there is a compact, lightweight, iron engine in your automotive future.
manufacturingcenter.com
The Peugeot 407 Elixir - A hint at the Future
Petrol and diesel editions will be available, including a flagship oil-burner with a 2.7-litre V6 co-developed with Ford. Entry-level cars will use a 1.8-litre petrol unit and cost around £14,500. The 407 saloon is expected to debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September and arrive here next March, with the estate following three months later. Load-lugging 406s are already popular, and Peugeot hopes the 407 SW will take 40 per cent of the range's sales. Dynamic and innovative styling - points to future models.
Twin wishbone suspension front and rear.
Large glass roof panel - as seen on 307 SW.
Six-cylinder, 2,700cc diesel engine.
next year.
Power for the 407 Elixir is provided by an all-new, 6-cylinder 2,700cc HDi diesel engine. This engine features the latest-generation particulate emission filter, ensuring automatic regeneration without any mileage limitations. The maximum power developed by this DT17 type diesel engine is 148 kW (more than 200 bhp), with a maximum torque figure of 440 Nm ( more torque/cylindervolume than the new Audi 3 liter V6.) Both are made with blocks in the new enginematerial CGI.
<font color="red"> Compacted graphite iron is top prospect </font>
Lightweight products aren’t always manufactured from light weight materials because performance often is a trade-off between weight and strength. Nowhere is this clearer than in the looming battle between aluminum and Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) for dominance in cylinder blocks and heads for next-generation vehicles.
Today the battle is fully joined in the lightweight automotive diesel arena where CGI’s superior strength (it’s nearly twice as strong as gray cast iron) gives it a major advantage. CGI diesel engines are both lighter and more compact than any other materials used in cylinder block production.
Because CGI is such an obvious candidate for next-generation engines, the Lamb Technicon division of UNOVA Industrial Automation Systems began working several years ago with the leading supplier of CGI casting systems, SinterCast of Sweden, to understand the unique machining characteristics of this material. The first opportunity to put the knowledge gained to work came from Ford U.K. which announced their plan to put an automotive diesel engine using a CGI cylinder block into production.
Lamb won the machining system contract for the new block, but cost and timing issues dictated a conventional low-speed/high-feed tooling approach, although the machines and fixtures were fully CGI-capable. This fact, however, makes the new block system a prime candidate for the next generation of high-speed CGI tooling as it becomes available, and those tools are now almost ready.
Is CGI worth it?
Until now, the price for this improved performance has been a more complex tool that requires specialized maintenance. That is why rotary tools have thus far found only a limited range of applications on gray iron where the productivity gains are sufficient to justify the tools’ complexity.
CGI is a different story, however. The productivity gains in this material easily justify the additional cost and complexity of rotary tools. Even more important, rotary tools make it practical to machine CGI at high speeds for the first time. Still, other issues, including reliability and the physical size of the tools, remained for the Lamb development team.
Actually, reliability and size are closely linked. As the Lamb team applied advanced computer modeling and analysis technologies to make the tools more reliable, it became easier to downsize them as well. After more than 5 years of work, rotary boring tools can now handle bores as small as 70 mm, and 40 mm bores will be possible in the future
Will the changeover to CGI be worth the price? The answer is almost certainly yes. Using the new Ford cylinder block system as an example, a relatively simple retrofit with Lamb’s rotary tooling system can possibly deliver significantly increased tool life while running at speeds up to 1,000 m/min. Compare that to today’s 150 m/min. and the benefits of rotary tooling technology are obvious.
Lighter, more efficient engines are an absolute necessity for the automotive industry, and high-performance diesels and bio-diesels could mount a major challenge to conventional gasoline power plants. Those diesels will depend on CGI blocks and possibly heads, and putting them into high-volume production will depend on practical, reliable high-speed machining systems.
But that’s not the end of the story. As new casting techniques come on line to permit wall thickness less than 3 mm, CGI may well become the material of choice for truly lightweight, and extremely compact gasoline engines as well as diesels. Here again, reliable, high-speed machining systems will be the key to making the next generation of automobile engines practical and cost-effective.
Diesel or gasoline, or some hybrid of the two, it’s a very good bet that there is a compact, lightweight, iron engine in your automotive future.
manufacturingcenter.com