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The authors used a mass spectrometer to determine an SOF reduction mechanism of a diesel oxidation catalyst. The results indicate that SOF reduction lies in the catalytic conversion of high molecular organic matter to low molecular organic matter. And unregulated emissions are also reduced through this conversion. It is also found that the SOF reduction performance is highly dependent up on the condition of the wash coat. There is some limitation to improving diesel oxidation catalyst performance because of the sulfur content found in diesel fuel. Finally, the authors have determined what we think are the specifications of the presently best catalytic converter.

A new prototype oxygen storage componented oxygen sensor has been developed which shows significant emission reductions of a 3-way catalyst system. This sensor is composed of ceria, as an oxygen storage component and supported pellets as a buffer layer surrounding the protective coating of the sensor element. This sensor offers a more rapid response than conventional ones under lean and rich fuel mixture excursions, which is caused by CO or O2 electrode poisoning.

A trap system has been developed that collects particulate using two small filters and regenerates alternately by electric heaters. This system contains a new idea in detection of the amount of particulate accumulation in the filters. The system counts the amount using a particulate accumulation rate map which is a function of the engine load and speed. In vehicle test with this trap system, the particulate collection efficiency and the regeneration efficiency were proved to be high enough for practical use. The test results also showed that the shutdown performance of the route switch valve greatly influenced the regeneration efficiency.

Diesel emission control is being addressed worldwide to help preserve the global environment. In 1994, emission controls in the U.S. called for reduction of diesel particulate matter (PM) to 10 to 20% of 1986's initial limit. In the same year, we developed and marketed small and medium duty trucks which were equipped with PM reduction systems that oxidize soluble organic fraction (SOF) contained in the PM, in order to satisfy these new regulations. Prior to their marketing, a catalyst was selected from among several types of candidate catalysts. Durability tests were performed using a catalytic converter-equipped small duty truck to verify the durability of the chosen catalyst. The durability test course was set up combining urban areas and expressways in the southern part of California, U.S.A.. The cumulative total distance covered on the test course reached 200,000 km. During the durability test, the catalyst was evaluated by measurement of PM emission using a chassis dynamometer.

The accuracy of real-time A/F measurement at engine test benches has been improved with a modified equation to calculate A/F from exhaust gas composition. In addition to CO, CO2, total hydrocarbon (THC) and O2, the proposed equation includes NO and NO2 concentration as variables. In an attempt to improve the accuracy of the assumed constants in the equation, experiments have been conducted using automotive exhaust H2O and H2 analyzers. The accuracy of the proposed equation was proven through experiments and it was also found useful for precise evaluation of three-way catalyst or oxygen sensor characteristics.

In the diesel engine industry, the growing trends are toward wider use of electronically controlled high pressure fuel injection equipment to provide better engine performance, while conforming to the stringent exhaust emission standards. Although there have been some recent announcements of a diesel engine that applies an electronically controlled common rail type fuel injection system, there is little literature published about any attempt to reduce both exhaust emissions and noise and to improve engine performance by varying injection pressure and injection timing independently and introducing pilot injection in combination. This paper describes the details of a study made on the parameters associated with injection timing, injection pressure and pilot injection and the procedures for their optimization, with an electronically controlled common rail type fuel injection system installed in an in-line 6-cylinder 6.9 liter turbocharged and intercooled DI diesel engine.

Applying micro-alloyed steel as a cost-effective method of forging engine parts eliminates quench and temper processes and saves energy. We have expanded this application to timing gears and crankshafts by changing the connecting rod material to carbon steel and vanadium, applied at the outset. Then, micro-alloyed steel treated with a soft nitriding process was used. Our recent studies have been focused on materials which exhibit both higher tensile strength and better machinability. This paper describes the results of applying different types of micro-alloyed steel to those engine parts.

Several different steel sheets were tested for energy absorption, using hat square columns and dynamic crash testing. Results indicate that steel sheets containing large volume fraction of retained austenite have relatively high energy absorption. The relationship between retained austenite and energy absorption was analyzed. These special steel sheets have already been successfully used for production body parts, such a front-side-member, without difficulties arising in volume production.

The authors developed, for use in diesel engines, ceramic tappets cast in aluminum alloy that drastically improved wear resistance and valve train dynamics. The ceramic tappets consist of two parts: a ceramic head, which contacts the cam and push rod, and a tappet body made of aluminum alloy. Concerning the ceramic, silicon nitride was the best material of the three ceramics evaluated in the tests and the sliding surface, in contact with the cam and push rod, was left unground. As for the aluminum alloy, hyper-eutectic aluminum-silicon alloy with a controlled pro-eutectic silicon size was selected. A reliability analysis using the finite-element method (FEM) was also made on the structure of the ceramic tappet for enhanced durability and reliability. The combination of this tappet and a cam made of hardened ductile cast iron, hardened steel, or chilled cast iron, respectively exhibits excellent wear resistance.

For meeting more stringent regulations to be imposed for reducing particulate matter (PM) in exhaust gas from diesel engines, it is required to improve performance of a trap system or other post-processing devices as well as fuel combustion efficiency of the engine itself. In the trap system, a trap filter is equipped to collect PM from exhaust gas. For continuous use of the trap filter, a regenerative processing must be carried out to remove PM by means of forced burning when a certain amount of PM has been trapped. The combustibility or burning characteristics of collected PM have a significant effect on the regenerative processing with an electric heater/burner. To clarify the combustibility of PM collected in the trap filter, we have examined the relationships between engine drive conditions (exhaust gas temperature), PM characteristics, and combustibility.

Auto-regeneration of diesel particulate traps, particularly combustion mode of soot in a wall flow filter with fuel additives, was investigated using a diesel engine of a light duty truck and truck itself. Soot burning in the trap and regeneration were observed under any engine operating condition including prolonged idling and stop-and-go driving at 0.18g metal/1 dosage of a mixture of copper and lead in the fuels. However, trap life was limited by ash clogging due to the metallic compounds. Although the influence of metallic additives on the environment was debatable, test results of the trap durability and calculations of soot burning based on the thermal ignition theory indicated that dosage and kind of fuel additives should be optimized in view of both trap life and reliability of soot burning.

With the intention of improving engine performance and emissions, the authors examined the influence of the method of initial fuel injection quantity reduction and of the injector configuration of a common rail fuel injection system on engine performance and exhaust emissions. Results showed that decreasing the nozzle hole diameter was an effective way to reduce the initial injection quantity without increasing black smoke. Compared to a three-way type injector, it was found that a two-way type injector can greatly reduce the amount of fuel leakage from the electromagnetic injector control valve and fuel consumption could be further improved by reduction of the driving loss. Furthermore, the increase of driving losses with higher injection pressure was small, and as a result, higher pressure injection was possible.

An extensive effort has been made, at Mitsubishi Motors, in the technology field of new catalysts and of the catalyst reaction control for the purpose of further improvement of the emission control with the GDI engines [1-2]. A new NOx-trap catalyst has been developed to satisfy the required higher catalyst performance under high-temperature condition. The new catalyst contains potassium (K) of excellent NOx-storage capacity under high-temperature region in the catalytic atmosphere, and to retain K stability zeolite is mixed in the catalyst layer as well as the substrate is coated with silica (SiO2). This new catalyst has been proven of the improved NOx conversion efficiency, and solved the long-pending problems particularly those experienced under high-temperature operation.

An investigation of anti-corrosion steel sheets (non-galvanized) which contain copper for automobile body parts has been conducted. Copper additives accelerate the formation of amorphous substrates. These substrates decrease the rate of corrosion. In order to retain the steel's formability and weldability, the contents of the alloying elements have been optimized. As a result, this newly developed steel sheet can be used for many different applications such as door sashes and door panels of mass produced cars. This paper describes the key properties of the newly developed steel sheet and additionally the mechanism of corrosion prevention, weldability, formability, and so on.

Austempered ductile iron (ADI) is a material having excellent mechanical properties and damping capacity. However practical mass production of ADI gears has not been possible due to ADI's poor machinability and distortion during the austempering heat treatment. With a new process method of carrying out hobbing before austempering when the material is in its soft condition, then austempering it and lastly, conducting the shave finishing process, we have diminished the above defects and developed practical ADI gears. These new gears generate less noise than ordinary nitrocarburized steel gears and are superior in pitting resistance.

When replacing a metal engine part with plastic, it is necessary to regard vibration damping as one of the important factors in terms of noise reduction as well as strength and heat resistance as being characteristics of the material. Plastics are far better for vibration damping than steel or aluminum, but this property is reduced by the addition of glassfiber-reinforced or high heat-resisting resins. We have taken notice of SMC (Sheet Molding Compound) which has the excellent strength and heat resistance properties and studied it in order to increase its vibration damping property. Since organic polymers show the peak value for vibration damping performance in the vicinity of the glass transition temperature (Tg), we studied a method to shift the Tg near the operating temperature region in order to improve the vibration damping property.

A particulate trap oxidizer system to reduce diesel particulate emissions has been developed. This system consists of a ceramic foam filter with an optimum volume, shape, and mesh number in terms of collection efficiency, pressure loss and particulate blow-off; a catalyst with a low activated-temperature for particulate incineration and with no sulfate formation during highway driving; and a regeneration system which prevents particulate overcollection during long-term continuous low-load/low-speed driving where it is difficult to achieve self-burning of particulates with a catalytic reaction. This paper describes the development of the particulate trap oxidizer system with these technologies and presents the results of practicability evaluations and 50,000-mile vehicle durability tests.

The major problems of the various mixture formation concepts for direct injection gasoline engines that have been proposed up to the present were caused by the difficulties of preparing the mixture with adequate strength at spark plug in wide range of engine operating conditions. Novel combustion control technologies proposed by Mitsubishi is one of the solution for these problems. By adopting upright straight intake ports to generate air tumble, an electromagnetic swirl injector to realize optimized spray dispersion and atomization and a compact piston cavity to maintain charge stratification, it has become possible to achieve super-lean stratified combustion for higher thermal efficiency under partial loads as well as homogeneous combustion to realize higher performance at full loads. GDI™ (Gasoline Direct Injection) engine adopting these technologies is developed. At partial loads, fuel economy improvement exceeding 30 % is realized.

We have developed a tappet with a cam lobe contacting tip made of a hard sintered material whose base material is cobalt, which adheres less to the steel of camshafts, and which also contains fine particles of tungsten carbide and chrome carbide. We have established a new evaluation method to access wear resistance performance of the tappet. It enables us to measure directly the friction force generated between the cam lobe and tappet and to evaluate anti-scuffing performance with high accuracy because we can clarify the time, load and cam angle at which scuffing occures.

In this study, the oxidation stability, soot dispersancy, antiwear performance, and friction-reducing capability of friction modifiers (FMs) were evaluated, and an SAE 5W-30 fully synthetic oil with MoDTC type FMs was developed for heavy-duty diesel engines. In several engine tests, it was confirmed that the developed oil can double the oil drain interval in comparison with API CD SAE 30, even when EGR is applied, and improves the fuel efficiency.