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In order to improve the reliability of oil seals in practical use, it is considered that further basic investigation for maintaining good sealing characteristics of seals are necessary. However, the result of analysing phenomena in oil seals which has caused the oil leakage in the market shows that about 60 % of oil leakage is caused by the seal installation to housing bore or shaft, about 30 % thereof by unsuitable operating condition and remaining 10 % by the design of oil seals. From the point, oil leakage troubles and their countermeasures on oil seals for automotive application are discussed.

In order to improve the reliability of seals for automotive application in practical use, it is considered that further basic investigations concerning sealing characteristics of seals are necessary. However, it has been found, from analyzing seals decided in the market as defective parts, that the troubles of seals in the market are mainly caused by both wrong handling for seals and the use under wrong operating condition which has not been expected by manufacturers of seals. Therefore, in order to improve the reliability of seals, it is important to investigate in detail troubles on functional characteristics of seals and their countermeasures. In this paper, on oil seals, O-rings, water pump seals and dust cover seals as seals for automotive application, the results of investigations are discussed.

To reduce NOx and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions from a heavy-duty diesel engine, the effects of urea selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems were studied. Proto type urea SCR system was composed of NO oxidation catalyst, SCR catalyst and ammonia (NH3) reduction catalyst. The NOx reduction performance of urea SCR system was improved by a new zeolite type catalyst and mixer for urea distribution at the steady state operating conditions. NOx and PM reduction performance of the urea SCR system with DPF was evaluated over JE05 mode of Japan. The NOx reduction efficiency of the urea SCR catalyst system was 72% at JE05 mode. The PM reduction efficiency of the urea SCR catalyst system with DPF was 93% at JE05 mode. Several kinds of un-regulated matters were detected including NH3 and N2O leak from the exhaust gas. It is necessary to have further study for detailed measurements for un-regulated emissions from urea solution.

To reduce NOx emissions from a heavy-duty engine at low exhaust temperature conditions, the plasma-assisted SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system was evaluated. The plasma-assisted SCR system is mainly composed of an ammonia gas supply system and a plasma reactor including a pellet type SCR catalyst. The preliminary test with simulated gases of diesel exhaust showed an improvement in the NOx reduction performance by means of the plasma-assisted SCR system, even below 150°C conditions. Furthermore, NOx reduction ratio was improved up to 77% at 110°C with increase in the catalyst volume. Also NOx emissions from a heavy-duty diesel engine over the transient test mode in Japan (JE05) were reduced by the plasma-assisted SCR system. However, unregulated emissions, e.g., aldehydes, were increased with the plasma environment. This paper reports the advantages and disadvantages of the plasma-assisted SCR system for a heavy-duty diesel engine.

C-shaped metal seals (C-seal) are used as static seals under the conditions such as high vacuum, high pressure, high temperature and cryogenic states. The correlation between the sealing performance and design parameters as loading force, deformation, and the surface roughness of ontacting faces have been investigated. This paper is concerned with the relationship between the surface condition of the coated-lead layer of C-seals and the surface roughness of mating flange. The effects of surface condition on leakage are examined fundamentally. Annular coated-lead layer on the surface of a C-seal prevents leakage, though there exist the fine defects or surface irregularities on the flange. It becomes clear from the test results that the surface conditions of the flange and loading force closely relate to the leakage rates with the deflection of C-seal under the. load and the behavior of the contact condition of flange surface.

The mechanical seal in automotive water pumps is critical to the performance and reliability of the engine, requiring consistent, effective sealing performance and long operating life. In recent years, the advent of maintenance free performance requirements and increasingly severe operating conditions have resulted in significant changes to the variety and concentration of additives in cooling systems. As a consequence of these changes to the additives, various types of premature seal leakage failures have occurred during service operation. These have been categorized into four types of failure modes and compared with seals providing normal service in order to establish simulated test conditions for engine coolants containing various additives. This paper reports on the various types of failure mechanisms that were found to occur during simulated performance testing and the corrective measures that will eliminate their occurrence

To reduce NOx and PM emissions in exhaust gas, after-treatment systems for low NOx emissions are being developed in combination with improvements of engine combustion. In recent years, the exhaust gas temperature has been dropping because of enhanced low-fuel consumption of the engine. Therefore, it is urgent to develop NOx reduction technologies that work at a low temperature under 200degC. Since NOx is reduced by reacting with ammonia supplied to the SCR catalyst, it is necessary to make the urea solution decompose into ammonia using the heat of the exhaust gas to supply sufficient ammonia to the SCR catalyst. However, both the decomposition reaction and hydrolysis reaction of the urea have insufficient exhaust heat, thus making it difficult for urea to decompose and hydrolyze to ammonia at a low temperature. To solve this problem, it focuses on forcibly decomposing the urea solution without depending on the exhaust gas temperature.

A 2-LEG NOx Storage-Reduction (NSR) catalyst system is one of potential after-treatment technology to meet stringent NOx and PM emissions standards as Post New Long Term (Japanese 2009 regulation) and US'10. Concerning NOx reduction using NSR catalyst, a secondary fuel injection is necessary to make fuel-rich exhaust condition during the NOx reduction, and causes its fuel penalty. Since fuel injected in the high-temperature (∼250 degrees Celsius) exhaust instantly reacts with oxygen in common diesel exhaust, the proportion of fuel consumption to reduce the NOx stored on NSR catalyst is relatively small. A 2-LEG NSR catalyst system has the decreasing exhaust flow mechanism during NOx reduction, and the potential to improve the NOx reduction and fuel penalty. Therefore, this paper studies the 2-LEG NSR catalyst system. The after-treatment system consists of NSR catalysts, a secondary fuel injection system, flow controlled valves and a Catalyzed Diesel Particulate Filter (CDPF).

Instead of end-face type seals, lip-type seals have recently been widely applied as sealing devices for automotive air conditioning compressors, and have shown good sealing performance in practical applications. This paper is concerned with the sealing phenomena of lip-type seals, which run under hydrodynamic lubrication between the lip/shaft surfaces.

End-face type seals (mechanical seals) have been applied as a sealing device for the automotive air conditioning compressor. However, in the practical market, oil or gas leakage from sealing devices sometimes occures based on blistering phenomena of carbon piece and lubricating conditions between rubbing surfaces. The paper presents good sealing performance for the developed face type mechanical seals.

Urea-SCR(selective catalytic reduction) system is widely used as a technology of NOx(Nitrogen Oxides) reduction from diesel engine exhaust gases. Emission regulations have becoming stricter all over the world, and high NOx reduction performance is necessary to meet the emission regulations. To get higher NOx reduction performance of the Urea-SCR system, it is important to understand detailed chemical reaction mechanisms of Urea-SCR catalysts. In this study, we focused on elucidation of the reaction mechanism of the Urea-SCR catalyst by numerical simulation approach. The chemical reaction models with detail chemical reactions were built for both Fe-catalyst and Cu-catalyst. Both of the catalytic reaction models can predict difference of the catalytic reaction performance between the Fe-catalyst and the Cu-catalyst. In addition, rate-determining reaction step of the Cu-catalyst was successfully identified by the numerical simulation results.

Diesel engine has a good fuel economy and high durability and used widely for power source such as heavy duty in the world. On the other hand, it is required to reduce NOx (Nitrogen Oxides) and PM (Particulate Matter) emissions further from diesel exhaust gases to preserve atmosphere. The urea-SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system is the most promising measures to reduce NOx emissions. DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) system is commercialized for PM reduction. However, in case that a vehicle has a slow speed as an urban area driving, a diesel exhaust temperature is too low to activate SCR catalyst for NOx reduction in diesel emissions. Moreover, the diesel exhaust temperature becomes lower as a future engine has less fuel consumption. The purpose of this study is reduction of NOx emission from a heavy-duty diesel engine using the Urea SCR system at the low temperature.

A fuel reforming technology using a low temperature oxidation was developed to improve a NOx reduction performance of HC-SCR (Hydrocarbons Selective Catalytic Reduction) system, which does not require urea. The low-temperature oxidization of a diesel fuel in gas phase produces NOx reduction agents with high NOx reduction ability such as aldehydes and ketones. A pre-evaporation-premixing-type reformer was adopted in order to generate a uniform temperature field and a uniform fuel/air premixed gas, and to promote the low temperature oxidation efficiently. As a fundamental study, elementary reaction analysis for n-hexadecane/air premixtures was carried out to investigate the suitable reformer temperature and fuel/air equivalence ratio for generation of oxygenated hydrocarbons. It was found that the reforming efficiency was highest at the reforming temperature around 623 to 673K, and aldehydes and ketones were produced.

Mechanical seals have been applied as sealing devices for water pumps of automotive engines. The mechanical seal plays an important state. Therefore, there are many kinds of constructions. This paper is concerned with the FEM (Finite Element Method) analytical results for various water pump seal construction. It becomes clear that the property of heat transfer is closely related to the sealing durability.

1 To meet the Japan Post New-Long-Term (Japan 2009) emissions regulation introduced in 2009, The Hydrocarbon Selective Catalytic Reduction (HC-SCR) system for the NOx emission with a diesel fuel was chosen among various deNOx after-treatment systems (the Urea-SCR, the NOx storage-Reduction Catalyst and so on). The HC-SCR was adopted, in addition to combustion modification of diesel engine (mainly cooled EGR) as the New DPR system. The New DPR system for medium and light duty vehicles was developed as a world's first technology by Hino Motors. Advantages of the New DPR are compact to easy-to-install catalyst converter and no urea solution (DEF) injection (regardless urea infrastructure) as compared the Urea-SCR system.

It becomes clear that the suction coefficient of oil, K, and the sealing characteristic constant, Φ (=fG-1/3), are closely connected with the rubbing surface state of oil seals. And, investigations have done on K-, Φ-value, etc. in oil seals after the practical use in automobiles and the results have been compared with the test results in the laboratory.

For purpose of clarifying the effect of quantity of lubricating oil supplied to the seal lip portion on sealing characteristics of oil seals, relations between the typical constructional applications of the fitting portion for oil seals and the quantity of the lubricating oil supplied to the oil seals are discussed. Then the necessary minimum quantity of the lubricating oil for preventing the seal lip from wear is investigated. And it is clarified that the decrease in sealing characteristics occurs when the lubricating oil is supplied insufficiently to the seal lip portion and, finally, the countermeasure is discussed.

Fine solid particles in a lubricating oil affect the sealing characteristics of oil seals, and their lives are shortened by the wear of oil seals and shafts created by the particles. Tests were carried out by using various kinds of foreign matters. The results showed that foreign matters in oil film between the sealing lip and the shaft surface directly caused the leakage. Consequently, it was reconfirmed that the practical application of dust lip and the countermeasure in the construction of seals or their housings were indispensable to obtain the long life and the stable operation of oil seals.

The turbo-charger of an automotive engine is commonly used for increasing its power characteristics. In this equipment, both sealing and lubricating conditions are important factors and face to difficult technical problems. This paper is concerned with sealing problem for the turbo-charger, and development of low frictional type mechanical seals with good performance and excellent reliability.

New type oil seals - nonwoven fabric secondary lip type oil seals are recently widely used for one of the sealing apparatus for automotive application. Basic improvement of this type of seals is in a secondary lip which prevents solid foreign matters such as dust and sand from entering into the rubbing portion between a primary lip of oil seals and a shaft. This secondary lip is superior in anti-dust property, wear resistance, following ability to the shaft eccentricity and air permeability to the conventional secondary lip of rubber. And the sealing performance of new type seals with the secondary lip made of special nonwoven fabrics is more stable than that of the conventional rubber seals.