Search Results

The automobile industry currently faces many challenges which may greatly impact on its foundry operations. One of these challenges, consumers'' demand for greater fuel efficiency, can be met by reducing the weight of castings used in automobiles, and minimizing engineering tolerances. In answer to this particular demand, engine foundries have begun to either produce cylinder blocks or other castings with aluminum rather than cast iron. However, if a reduction in weight (thin wall and near-net shaping) can be realized with cast iron, there would be numerous merits from the perspective of cost and compactness and there would be much more flexibility in automotive parts design.

A new automotive interior component material, TSOP-5 has been developed by refining the technology utilized to develop TSOP-1, the high modulus and high flow material for bumper covers. This new interior component material has excellent molding capability (MI=30dg/min.) yet still maintains high impact resistance which enables the material to be used in areas such as the dash board as well as trim covers requiring to meet the FMVSS 214, the new side impact regulation or the FMVSS 201, the new soft upper trim regulation.

The combustion chamber deposit (CCD) forming tendency of gasoline components and detergents were investigated with laboratory tests ad engine dynamometer tests. In the dynamometer tests, the driving conditions under which fuels and detergents influence CCD formation were specified, and the effects of different gasoline components and detergent blends on CCD formation were examined. In the laboratory tests, the CCD forming process was investigated thoroughly [10]. The CCD forming tendency of aromatic compounds in gasoline were dependent not only on physical properties such as molecular weight, but also chemical structure (number or position of the alkyl substituents of aromatic molecules). As for oxygenates, engine dynamometer tests with MTBE blended gasoline yielded less CCD than the test without MTBE. The CCD forming tendency of detergents correlated with the thermal decompositon tendency of the detergent package and the concentration of the main agents.

Recently, use of aluminum engine parts has increased for fuel economy and power improvements. Aluminum cylinder heads, for example, are currently used in most engines. But, only low performance engine coolants are available for prevention of heat-transfer corrosion of aluminum cylinder heads. The authors have studied a laboratory test method that is able to accurately evaluate the performance of engine coolants for prevention of aluminum cylinder head corrosion. And we have developed the new test method by changing the test specimen temperature higher and the engine coolant temperature lower than the ASTM D4340 test. The new test has been confirmed engine bench test. We evaluated further the performance of many engine coolants of the world for prevention of aluminum cylinder head corrosion using the new test. We have known that there were a lot of poor performance engine coolants in the world.

Recently, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has proposed a new set of evaporative emissions and “Useful Life” standards, called LEVII EVAP regulations, which are more stringent than those of the enhanced EVAP emissions regulations. If the new regulations are enforced, it will become increasingly important for the carbon canister to reduce Diurnal Breathing Loss (DBL) and to prevent deterioration of the canister. Therefore, careful studies have been made on the techniques to meet these regulations by clarifying the working capacity deterioration mechanism and the phenomenon of DBL in a carbon canister. It has been found that the deterioration of working capacity would occur if high boiling hydrocarbons, which are difficult to purge, fill up the micropores of the activated carbon, and Useful Life could be estimated more accurately according to the saturated adsorption mass of the activated carbon and the canister purge volume.

This paper describes application of sintered silicon nitride to the swirl lower-chamber in order to improve performance of turbocharged diesel engines. Various stress analyses by finite element method and stress measurements have been applied to determine the design specifications for the component, which compromise brittleness of ceramic materials. Material development was conducted to evaluate strength, fracture toughness, and thermal properties for the sintered bodies. Ceramic injection molding has been employed to fabricate components with large quantities in the present work. Quality assurance for the components can be made by reliability evaluation methods as well as non-destructive and stress loading inspections. It is found that the engine performance with ceramic component has been increased in the power out put of 9PS as compared to that of conventional engines.

Two-layered surface materials composed of a thermoplastic olefin elastomer (TPO) skin and a cross-linked polypropylene (PP)foam are increasingly replacing the conventional PVC skin/PVC foam for interior trims. In the past, recycled material obtained by melt-blending TPO skin and PP foam could not be re-used for TPO skin because of its appearance. A new recycling technology using the reaction biaxial extruder with a reaction agent can decompose the network structure of PP foam. As a result, PP foam is dispersed into TPO uniformly and the recycled material has properties and an appearance similar to virgin TPO. These new properties may allow the application of the recycled material as a surface material.

ϵ-caprolactam was polymerized in the interlayer space of montmorillonite, the clay mineral yielding a nylon-clay hybrid (NCH). X-ray and TEM measurements revealed that each template of the silicate, which was 1 nm thick, was dispersed in the nylon 6 matrix, and that the interlayer distance of clay increased continuously from 1.2 nm for the unintercalated material to 21.4 nm for the intercalated material. Thus, NCH is a polymer-based molecular composite or a nano-composite. NCH contains 1-15 vol% of monolayer clay. Injection-molded NCH showed excellent mechanical properties compared with nylon 6 in terms of tensile strength, tensile modulus and heat resistance. The tensile modulus of NCH was twice that of Nylon 6, and the heat distortion temperature increased from 65°C for nylon 6 to 145°C for the NCH containing only 1.6 vol% of a clay mineral. It was found that such excellent properties of an NCH system was due to the strong ionic interaction between nylon 6 and the silicate layer.

This paper describes a new plastic coloring and forming system. The system greatly reduces the time and amount of raw materials necessary for color changes, and eliminates the need for manual cleaning during a color change. This system is well-suited for small-lot production with frequent color changes, as well as for automated production systems. The system is being used by auto parts makers, and is practical in a variety of other fields involved with the coloring and forming of plastics.

An all aluminum cylinder block with a Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) cylinder bore was developed which made it possible to re-design the base engine for high performance with a bore-to-bore distance as narrow as 5.5mm. The cylinder block is an open deck type and the MMC preform consists of alumina-silica fibers and mulite particles. A laminar flow die cast process was selected to ensure defect-free MMC bore quality. To insure good lubrication, electrochemical machining was applied to the bore surface. By use of radioisotope(RI) measurements, MMC reinforcement was optimized for wear characteristics. Particular attention was paid to use of fuels with high sulfur levels.

A metal support for use in an automotive catalyst is exposed to the severe heat cycle brought about by the intermittent flow of a high temperature exhaust gas. Accordingly, the metal support must have high beat resistance(ex. oxidation resistance) and a rigid structure. Therefore, 20% chromium-5% aluminum ferritic stainless steel(containing small quantities of rare earth metals and titanium) is used as a highly beat resistant honeycomb foil in addition to a highly mechanical durable brazing honeycomb structure. This study examined the durability of a metal honeycomb installed in a gasoline engine. Both an engine bench durability test of a manifold converter type metal support which is connected directly to the exhaust manifold of the gasoline engine and a vehicle durability test of an under the floor type metal support were carried out to evaluate oxidation damage of the metal honeycomb as well as its mechanical durability.

With the advance in modularization of engine parts in recent years, there is increased use of plastic-made products in air intake systems. Plastic-made intake manifolds (Fig. 1) provide many advantages including reduced weight, reduced cost, and lower intake air temperatures. However, these manifolds have one disadvantage when compared with conventional aluminum-made intake manifolds, in that they transmit more noise because of their lower material density. For example, plastic intake manifolds of early development often generate flow noise when the throttle is opened quickly. With conventional aluminum intake manifolds, this flow noise had generated, but was not heard. This flow noise is presumed to be generated because of high-speed airflow generated when the throttle is opened quickly, but the mechanism of this noise generation has not been clarified.

In order to achieve higher assembly accuracy for automotive body, increased body rigidity, and decreased stamping and assembly costs in car body manufacturing, a new method of sheet metal stamping has been developed, in which several blanks of different strength and thickness are integrated using CO2 laser-welding. The stamping formability of the laser-welded blank is limited compared with that of the conventional single blank. It is very difficult to predict the exact decrease in formability for different positions of the weld line and for different matching of materials. Because experimental estimations were indispensable for stamping die designers to evaluate formability at the stage of planning dies, many man-hours were spent conducting actual experiments.

The hydrocarbon adsorption volume character of zeolite was studied. Specifically, the relationship between aluminum content and zeolite hydrocarbon adsorption was investigated, as a potential hydrocarbon adsorbent for exhaust gas. The study also analyzed the relationship between hole diameter and zeolite hydrocarbon adsorption. It was found that hydrocarbon adsorption increased with decreasing aluminum content. Zeolite with a pore size approximately 0.1nm greater than the diameter of hydrocarbon molecules showed the best performance. Zeolites with two different pore sizes were mixed, and succeeded in adsorbing hydrocarbons of carbon number 3 and above. Silver (Ag) ion exchanged zeolite was also used to increase the adsorption of exhaust gas hydrocarbons, including those of carbon number 2.

This paper describes the development of alloy cast iron that can be used for the cutting edges of the trimming die of a press die. Usually, a block of tool steel or steel casting is inserted at the cutting edge of the trimming die of a press die. However, we unified the structure part and the cutting-edge part of a press die with alloy cast iron. As it can''t bear as the cutting edge in this state, the cutting edge is processed by flame-hardening. After the flame- hardening, we developed the alloy cast iron so that enough hardness may be obtained by natural air cooling. Thereby, the machining of the installation seat of the cutting edge decreased and the expense of dies has been reduced.

The 1ZZ-FE engine is a newly developed in-line 4-cylinder, 1.8-liter, DOHC 4-valve engine mounted in the new Corolla. Abounding in new technologies including the laser-clad valve seat, high-pressure die-cast aluminum cylinder block, and the small-pitch chain drive DOHC, coupled with the fundamentally reviewed basic specifications, the new engine is compact and lightweight, offering high performance and good fuel economy. Anticipating even more stringent emission regulations in the future, in addition to the revision of the engine body, the layout of the exhaust system has been improved to enhance warm-up performance of the converter.

Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR), the waste generated by shredding operations in the recycling of metals from scrapped automobiles, is currently disposed of in landfill sites. In Japan, disposal regulations such as leachable lead control have been changed, and moreover landfill sites are getting scarce. Therefore how to control, treat and decrease ASR is a serious matter. This study presents methods for the recycling of automotive shredder residue into automobile components by dry mechanical processing steps. These steps sort the material into several categories accrding to its properties. The material fineness is improved by further, thorough, sorting steps.

The EMT (Elastomer Modified Thermoplastics) currently used in passenger car bumper fascia are limited in retaining low CLTE (Coefficient of Linear Thermal Expansion) and impact resistance, although they are highly rigid, which allows a reduction in weight, and also have high flowability during injection molding. We have developed a new bumper material called “Super Olefin Polymer” using a unique theory based upon a reversal of the current concept. The current polymer design concept of the EMT material is to compound and disperse the EPR (Ethylene Propylene Rubber) into the resin matrix such as polypropylene. We reversed the domain and the matrix, and treated the resin phase as the filler and the elastomer phase as the matrix.

In automotive plastic parts, bumpers are rather bigger parts and easy to be detached. And there is growing need to develop bumpers recycling technology. Now we developed the recycling technology for waste painted Super Olefin Polymer (SOP) bumpers from car dealers in production. This technology consists of discriminating from the repair in market by dyeing, and of melting SOP resin and hydrolysis of the paint film which are carried out simultaneously in a twin-screw extruder Reactive Processing System.

Mass reduction of parts is growing in importance as a means for reducing CO2 emissions from vehicles.The aim of the present research was to contribute to further mass reduction of pistons by developing a new aluminum casting material with highest level of fatigue strength. This goal was achieved using a development concept of creating a homogeneous structure in which Ti was added to create a fine structure and appropriate quantities of Fe and Mn were added to form a compound that is stable at high temperatures. Stand-alone tests of prototype pistons fabricated using the developed material show that the material is 14% stronger than the conventional material, thereby enabling increases in power and mass reduction.