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The efficiency of the NOx Storage and Reduction (NSR) catalysts used in the aftertreatment of diesel engine exhaust gases can potentially be increased by using reactive reductants such as CO and H₂ that are formed during in-cylinder combustion. In this study, a multi-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code coupled with complex chemical analysis was used to study combustion with various fuel after-injection patterns. The results obtained will be useful in designing fuel injection strategies for the efficient formation of CO.

In order to correspond to the exhaust emissions regulations that become severe every year, more advanced engine control becomes necessary. Engine engineers are concerned about the Hydrocarbons (HCs) that flow through the air-intake ports and that are difficult to precisely control. The main sources of the HCs are, the canister purge, PCV, back-flow gas through the intake valves, and Air / Fuel ratio (A/F) may be aggravated when they flow into the combustion chambers. The influences HCs give on the A/F may also grow even greater, which is due to the increasingly stringent EVAP emission regulations, by more effective ventilation in the crankcase, and also by the growth of the VVT-operated angle and timing, respectively. In order to control the A/F more correctly, it is important to estimate the amount of HCs that are difficult to manage, and seek for suitable controls over fuel injection and so on.

A new test machine has been developed which can evaluate vibration due to stick-slip using an actual full-scale clutch pack. Using this machine, a static breakaway friction coefficient measurement test method and a stick-slip test method have been established. Both methods have been shown to provide results which correlate with the results from both a full-scale assembly test and a vehicle shudder evaluation test. The evaluation of the frictional properties of commercial oils using these test methods showed that the static breakaway friction coefficient and the stick-slip properties have generally contradictory performance to each other for automatic transmission. The study of the frictional properties for typical additives and an analysis of the surface of the steel plates with ESCA (Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis) showed that the frictional properties are significantly affected by the additives adsorbed on the clutch plate sliding surface.

A new stratified charge system has been developed for direct injection gasoline engines. The special feature of this system is employment of a thin fan-shaped fuel spray formed by a slit nozzle and a shell-shaped piston cavity. This system, basically classified into the wall-guided mixture preparation concept that leads air/fuel mixture to the spark plug periphery by means of spray penetration and piston cavity configuration without an extra intake air flow controlling system, obtained wide engine operating area with stratified combustion and high output performance. This report presents the characteristics of stratified mixture formation and combustion, especially the important factor for achieving stable stratified combustion in the high-speed region, which have been clarified through analytical studies.

In the field of automobile disk wheels, demands for aluminum wheels have been increasing for the reason of ride comfort and better appearance. And over 90 percent of luxurious passenger cars are equipped with aluminum wheels. This trend is spurred also by the demand for higher fuel efficiency for the cause of environmental protection, which calls for weight reduction of automobiles. This paper reports our research on manufacturing light-weight, high-quality aluminum cast wheels; covering the entire process from basic design to casting, and placing emphasis on the following three points. 1) Determination of optimum wheel configuration through computer simulation 2) Selection of optimum material composition 3) Optimization of the thin plate casting conditions Combination of the above technologies developed for the purpose of weight reduction resulted in the weight reduction of approximately 20% over the conventional aluminum wheels.

An experimental study was carried out in order to reduce engine-out HC emissions from a direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine during the cold start period. The objectives of this study were to investigate the fuel behavior quantified with an analytic method and to propose some practical techniques to reduce the cylinder-wetting fuel volume and engine-out HC emissions. Compared to the MPI (Multi Port Fuel Injection) engine, required fuel volume for DISI engine was reduced during the cold start because intake port wall-wetting was not generated. On the other hand, a large volume of cylinder wetting fuel resulted in engine-out HC emissions. Injection timing, atomization and vaporization of injected fuel affected the cylinder-wetting fuel volume. Above all, Injection of the heated fuel provided good results. In summary, engine-out HC emissions from DISI engine was reduced compared to that of MPI engine during the cold-start period.

In emerging markets, Port Fuel Injection (PFI) technology retains a higher market share than Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) technology. In these markets fuel quality remains a concern even despite an overall improvement in quality. Typical PFI engines are sensitive to fuel quality regardless of brand, engine architecture, or cylinder configuration. One of the well-known impacts of fuel quality on PFI engines is the formation of Intake Valve Deposits (IVD). These deposits steadily accumulate over time and can lead to a deterioration of engine performance. IVD formation mechanisms have been characterized in previous studies. However, no test is available on a state-of-the-art engine to study the impact of fuel components on IVD formation. Therefore, a proprietary engine test was developed to test several chemistries. Sixteen fuel blends were tested. The deposit formation mechanism has been studied and analysed.

The slit nozzle in the fuel injection valve for a direct injection spark ignition gasoline engine forms a thin, fan-shaped spray. The fan-shaped spray is characterized by high dispersion, comparatively high penetration, and fine atomization. This enables it to form a stable air-fuel mixture. However, further improvement of engine performance requires that the spray characteristics (particularly the level of atomization) be improved. Since the spray characteristics are strongly influenced by the fuel flow within the nozzle, it was clarified this effect by visual analyses of the fuel flow inside the nozzle using enlarged acrylic slit nozzles. The results demonstrated that vortices that are formed within the nozzle sac are continuously propagated in a periodic manner within the sac and that they influence the streamline of fuel flow from the sac to the slit.

Various dies have been used for producing many internal and external parts of an automobile. This paper describes the method of ‘High Speed Die-sinking’ that is one of the key technologies for die-making. We analyzed the milling mechanism of a typical Ball End-Mill used for die-sinking and performed cutting tests. As a result, we have achieved high speed and fine quality die-sinking technology. Its feed speed is about four or five times as fast as before, and the irregularity of the milled surface is under one-fifth as compared with previous level. In addition, we will propose the new method for estimating finishing performance by ball end-mill.

Sintered silicon nitride, particularly in structural ceramics, has superior properties such as low weight, heat resistance, wear resistance, etc. It is already being applied to automobile engine parts such as the swirl chamber and the turbine rotor. In recent years, the strength of silicon nitride has shown to be above 1000MPa. This has been achieved through advances in manufacturing technology such as materials powder, forming, sintering and so on. But the silicon nitride is easily damaged during grinding because it has less fracture toughness than metal. Consequently, the inherent strength of the material is not demonstrated in the actual products presently produced. It is assumed that the main cause of strength reduction is microcrack. In ordinary grinding methods, the length of microcrack has been estimated at approximately twenty micrometers by fracture mechanics analysis.

In this paper, the authors have developed a new measuring method of the liquid fuel film thickness on walls, such as intake ports, the combustion chamber and cylinder liner of a Port Fuel Injection (PFI) engine, and clarified the fuel film behavior under various running conditions when Fiber-based Laser-Induced Fluorescence (Fiber-based LIF) was applied to the newly developed method. The thickness of the fuel film is measured by detecting the intensity of fluorescence from the film that is irradiated by a He-Cd laser. A single optical fiber is used to simultaneously transmit the laser beam and the fluorescence from the film. In addition, the S/N ratio of the fluorescence is improved by using a He-Cd laser of which the wavelength (λ=442nm) is able to efficiently irradiate test fuel doped 2-3-butandione. Using this method, the fuel film thickness on the wall of the PFI engine was analyzed in two case studies.

CARB (California Air Resources Board) has required the evaporative emissions to be restricted to 1/4th of the parameter stated in the 1995 regulations. Furthermore, hydrocarbons (hereafter, HC) from the fuel system must be reduced to near 0.0 grams, according to the PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicle) regulations enforced from 2003. The wet film in intake ports and fuel leaking from the injector nozzles evaporate and diffuse while the car is parked, and consequently may cause HC to leak the air cleaner inlet. The air cleaner which prevents HC leakage from the air intake system is already in mass production. In the course of designing this product to be installed in a vehicle, the authors developed a method to estimate the amount of HC that reaches the air cleaner. Based on detailed investigation on HC distribution and the changes that occur during parking, the HC amount reaching the air cleaner was calculated by both the equation of diffusion and the equation of state.

A direct injection (DI) gasoline engine having a new stratified charge combustion system has been developed. This new combustion process (NCP) was achieved by a fan-shaped fuel spray and a combustion chamber with a shell-shaped cavity in the piston. Compared with the current Toyota D-4 engine, wider engine operating area with stratified combustion and higher output performance were obtained without a swirl control valve (SCV) and a helical port. This report presents the results of combustion analyses to optimize fuel spray characteristics and piston cavity shapes. Two factors were found to be important for achieving stable stratified combustion. The first is to create a ball-shaped uniform mixture cloud in the vicinity of the spark plug. The optimum ball-shaped mixture cloud is produced with a fuel spray having early breakup characteristics and uniform distribution, and a suitable side wall shape in the piston cavity to avoid the dispersion of the mixture.

Recently, single action draw with cushion replaces draw with double action presses. In the single action draw, binding fluctuation problem occurs by its structure. We applied an NC cushion to prevent the problem. We compared the cushion force wave with and without an NC cushion. The NC cushion showed effective damping. We studied the binding force control of a side member outer panel. The panel didn't have the formable range of binding. This means the lowest binding force to avoid wrinkling, still had crack problems. We introduce four patterns of binding force control with the NC cushion. As a result, we found the suitable pattern to suppress the surface distortion. Controlling the binding force shows effectiveness as a means of suppressing surface distortions.

The cause of the exhaust smoke and its reduction methods in a small DI Diesel engine with a small-orifice-diameter nozzle and common rail F.I.E. were investigated under high-speed and high-load condition, using both in-cylinder observations and Three-dimensional numerical analyses. The following points were clarified during this study. At these conditions, fuel sprays are easily pushed away by a strong swirl, and immediately flow out to the squish area by a strong reverse squish. Therefore, the air in the cavity is not effectively used. Suppressing the airflow in a piston cavity, using such ideas as enlarging the piston cavity diameter or reducing the port swirl ratio, decreases the excessive outflow of the fuel-air mixture into the squish area, and allows the full use of air in the whole cavity. Hence, exhaust smoke is reduced.

This research aimed to identify how combustion characteristics are affected by the addition of hydrogen to methane, which is the main components of natural gas, and to study a combustion method that takes advantage of the properties of the blended fuel. It was found that adding hydrogen did not achieve a thermal efficiency improvement effect under stoichiometric conditions because cooling loss increased. The same result was obtained under EGR stoichiometric conditions. In contrast, under lean burn conditions, higher thermal efficiency and lower NOx than with methane combustion was achieved by utilizing the wide flammability range of hydrogen to expand the lean limit. Although NOx can be decreased easily by the addition of large quantities of hydrogen, the substantially lower energy density of the fuel causes a substantial reduction in cruising range. Consequently, this research improved the combustion of a CNG engine by increasing the tumble ratio to 1.8.

When fuel is vaporized and mixed well with air in the cylinder of premixed diesel engines, the mixture auto-ignites in one burst resulting in strong combustion noise, and combustion noise reduction is necessary to achieve high load premixed diesel engine operation. In this paper, an engine noise analysis was conducted by engine tests and simulations. The engine employed in the experiments was a supercharged single cylinder DI diesel engine with a high pressure common rail fuel injection system. The engine noise was sampled by two microphones and the sampled engine noise was averaged and analyzed by an FFT sound analyzer. The engine was equipped with a pressure transducer and the combustion noise was calculated from the power spectrum of the FFT analysis of the in-cylinder pressure wave data from the cross power spectrum of the sound pressure of the engine noise.

The fluorescent magnetic particle inspection is widely used as a visual inspection method for checking cracks generated in hardening and grinding of induction-hardened parts. However, automation of this inspection process has strongly been demanded, due to poor environmental conditions and production line speed. To satisfy such a demand, we have developed a method for picking up images of automotive parts with higher S/N ratio and an original algorithm for image processing which helps measure cracks accurately without being affected by the illuminance and magnetic particle solution concentration. Then we selected the front axle shaft as the object to study practical use and have solved various technical problems in actual use, thereby succeeding in actual application to our production lines.

To more effectively improve the work on a vehicle assembly line, it is desirable to have a method by which the degree of work load on each person can be evaluated quantitatively; enables us to decide the priority order of improvement; and calculates the improvement effect. We developed a quantitative evaluation method of work load by introducing a concept of physiological stress generated regardless of the type of muscles involved. Applying the burden borne by the body to the load evaluation of various assembly operations involved the problem of complex load measuring methods. We solved this problem by categorizing the load conditions for various assembly operations and converting each to a standard state of loads evaluated by experiments.

New ductile cast iron flywheel integrated with gear and its manufacturing process were developed to reduce the manufacturing steps and cost compared with conventional flywheel around which a steel ring gear is fit. In this process, the ring gear teeth around a cast iron flywheel are formed directly in net shape and free from any defect by the hot form-rolling method, followed by the thermomechanical treatment in a short time. The gear is superior to that made by the conventional hobbing and heat treatment in accuracy, strength and anti-wear property.