Ricardo sees diesel surge accelerating in Europe - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Automotive engineering consultancy Ricardo finds that outstanding performance advances in diesel technology in recent years explain a huge and growing surge in European vehicle dieselization.

European diesel car sales last year topped 5.33 million units, an all-time record. That was up 12% over the previous record in 2002.

"At this rate, Ricardo estimates that [European] diesel car sales will reach a market penetration in excess of 40% in 2002 and 50% potentially by 2005," the company found.

It's not just the superior fuel economy of diesels that's driving the massive trend, according Ricardo's "Diesel Passenger Car & Light Commercial Vehicle Markets in Western Europe" report.

Rather, it's common rail, variable-geometry turbo and other engineering breakthroughs helping motorists to choose high-performance diesel over gasoline, the company finds.

rance and Germany continue to set the diesel pace, although the UK saw a 39% jump in diesel sales last year, reversing six years of gasoline growth.

"Business car drivers trying to reduce [CO.sub.2] levels in the run-up to the new [UK] emissions-based company car tax, starting April 2002, helped fuel last year's rapid rise of diesel sales" in the UK, Ricardo found. Another factor was a new [CO.sub.2]-based road tax on vehicles registered since March 1, 2001.

In Italy, the removal of punitive anti-diesel tax measures since 1995 explains why diesels now capture 37% of new-car sales there. Spain meanwhile continues to score on diesels, representing over half of new-car sales.

France saw a whopping 21% increase in diesel car sales last year, with a resulting 56% sales share. German diesels also rose by 12.6%, to 35% of car sales.

Belgium and Luxembourg diesel sales rates are now over 62%, and Austria continues as Europe's leader with a 65.7% diesel sales share, thanks to a fuel tax rate tied to fuel economy/[CO.sub.2] policies.

Because of this huge demand surge, "it is expected that within five years manufacturers will be able to offer customers the same number of diesel [model] options as gasoline variants for each vehicle, further enhancing the' desirability of the diesel car," Ricardo's study found.

Making the HEMTT a hybrid: Oshkosh Truck develops diesel-electric version of workhorse Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck

Now in its third generation, Oshkosh Truck Corp. has developed a diesel-electric hybrid-powered version of its Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, the HEMTT A3. The truck is one of two hybrid HEMTT A3 vehicles developed by Oshkosh under a development contract with the Department of Defense (DoD). The first was a proof-of-concept model released in 2003 while the second is a production-ready vehicle featuring a 60,500 lb. GVWR, 13-ton payload and components spec'd to military requirements such as extreme temperature requirements.

"We took what we had in '03 and put a lot of engineering into it and a lot of development time into turning this into something that went from a proof-of-concept to an actual vehicle to fit within the military's applications," said Dan Binder, technical director for Oshkosh, in Oshkosh, Wis. "That's where we're at today.

"We have a truck that is diesel-electric hybrid powered and it does virtually everything its conventional counterpart vehicle does today. It meets the grade climbing requirements, speed requirements, it's able to carry the payload and meet the temperature requirements and high expectations for cooling capability." Binder added that the hybrid version is 3000 lb. lighter than the second generation HEMTT currently in production.

o shave pounds on the HEMTT A3, Oshkosh has replaced a number of conventional truck components with lighter and smaller parts. "We've taken out the 8V92TA Detroit Diesel engine and Allison transmission, both very capable pieces of equipment, but big and heavy," Binder explained. "We replaced that engine with a small ISL engine and generator."

The A3 truck features a 9 L six-cylinder Cummins ISL diesel engine rated 400 hp at 2200 rpm which is incorporated into Oshkosh's ProPulse diesel-electric drive system. The ProPulse system incorporates a 305 kW Marathon generator driven off the engine, which produces 460 V of alternating ac current that power four axle mounted Moog wheel motors. The system uses an ac power circuit vs. dc to accommodate the varying conditions and terrain the truck may be placed in, said Binder. "In our truck you don't know whether you're driving down the road or across the field or up a mountain," he said. "The military drive cycle includes huge variations as compared to an on-road application where you can set it to run on that start/stop mode whether it's hilly or level."

Two sizes fit all: Black Rock's new APU targets different segments of truck market with choices of engine and generator size

As the issue of truck idling has taken on greater importance, there has been no shortage of players entering the market with new technologies. Some of the most significant growth has come in auxiliary power units (APU), which are essentially small generator sets, often packaged with heating and cooling units, mounted to a truck.

A new player in the market is Black Rock Systems LLC, Reno, Nev. The company was founded to develop APU technology for heavy-duty trucks. But what's a little different about the company's approach with its debut product is that it's more than a single APU. Instead, the Blackrock APU is available with two generator outputs ranging from 3.7 or 6 kW, driven by two- or three-cylinder Yanmar liquid-cooled diesel engines.

"For probably about 75% of the market, the two-cylinder is more than ample," said Steve Rovarino, vice president, sales and marketing at Black Rock Systems LLC. "It gives them all of the power they need. But for someone like a deluxe owner-operator who's in Arizona, he's better off with the three cylinder.

"For extreme operating environments or situations where there is more of a load than you'd usually see, the three-cylinder is really the answer."

The Blackrock APU was in development for approximately a year and a half and debuted at the Mid-America Trucking Show earlier this year. Both models are powered by Yanmar TNV diesel engines--the two-cylinder, 2TNV70 and the three-cylinder 3TNV70. The liquid-cooled engines share the same bore and stroke dimension (70 x 74 mm) and have standard ratings of 11.6 and 17.4 hp respectively at 2800 rpm. Both meet EPA Tier 2 and EU Stage 2 engine emissions standards, the company said.

Engine air filtration is through a Donaldson air cleaner and cooling is provided by an SRF America radiator with twin Spaal fans, which are matched to eliminate APU overheating even in the harshest conditions, according to the company. Rovarino said Black Rock "looked at the option of interfacing with the main truck systems," but ultimately decided that the more prudent course would be to make the APU completely self-contained. "If there would ever be a problem with the APU, you wouldn't want to have it take down the whole truck," he said. "That's why we felt that it was better to keep the systems separate. There are also sometimes warranty issues if you get into the truck engine's main systems."

New 70 kW marine auxiliary gen-set - Marine Propulsion News - Alaska Diesel Electric - generator set

Alaska Diesel Electric has introduced a new Northern Lights model MP445H marine auxiliary generator set rated 70 kW. This unit uses modern clean-burn diesel technology with the Deere PowerTech diesel engine. The turbocharged diesel engine reduces N[O.sub.x], HC and particulate exhaust emissions in a compact four-cylinder configuration, ADE said.

Other improvements including gear driven water pump for high reliability, horizontal heat exchanger and serpentine alternator belt with automatic tensioner.

The cooling system offers increased capacity, better access to the seawater cooling pump and only one hose in the coolant circuit. The seawater-exposed part of the system utilizes all copper nickel components and the hose is a high quality silicon type.

Exhaust system manifolding has also been made to be interchangeable with older versions where upgrading of these older units is desirable.

The MP445H also marks the introduction of an optional digital voltage regulator with its own discrete power supply. This separate power source offers a more precise solid state automatic voltage regulator (AVR) and can be used for more close tolerance voltage regulations. The AVR will not be adversely affected by electric motor starting, according to Alaska Diesel Electric. The gen-sets also meet the 300 percent short circuit support requirement for Lloyds and ABS classified vessels.

The new Northern Lights gen-set continues the low-vibration, high-fuel efficiency, single-side service, [+ or -]1 percent voltage regulation, vibration mounts and polyurethane finish common to the company's previous genset designs. The units can also be prepared at the factory with sophisticated auto-paralleling and auto-start systems to meet an owner's particular requirements.

New diesel driven welder/generator from Lincoln - Lincoln Electric Co.'s Commander 500

The Lincoln Electric Co., Cleveland, Ohio, has unveiled its latest multipurpose, engine driven welder/generator, the Commander 500. The welder features Lincoln's newly developed Chopper Technology, which is designed to control the d.c. welding output to create an arc with increased welding performance. In addition, the Commander 500 welder/generator is engineered to deliver exceptional stick, TIG, cored wire, MIG, and arc gouging performance, the company said.

"What our engineers did was basically take a typical chopper circuit and adapt it to specific welding applications," said Eric Snyder, product manager for engine driven welders at Lincoln Electric. "The Chopper Technology works like a simplified inverter, which are starting to become very popular within the welding industry.

"We're taking three-phase power and putting it through our specially designed chopper module. At the heart of this module lies an integrated gate bipolar transistor or IGBT, which takes this three-phase a.c. and rectifies it to d.c."

At this point, Snyder explained, the chopper module operates like a high-speed switch by turning on and off 20,000 times per second. "So it's basically turning your output on and off, let's say between zero and 100 amps. That is so fast, that as far as the welding arc is concerned, it just looks like a solid d.c. line - just a straight line right at the 100 amp level."

"The high-speed switch circuit provides a great deal of flexibility to address all the welding processes. The result is easy starts, smooth arc, good bead appearance and lower splatter levels on the welded piece."

The Commander 500 welder/generator provides 500 amps of welding power at 100 percent duty cycle, and is suited to the construction, maintenance, repair, rental and pipe industries. Besides being a d.c. multi-purpose welding machine, it is also designed to generate 12 kW of a.c. power from the 120 V/240 V full-kVA receptacle or 4.8 kW of a.c. power from two 120 V duplex receptacles.

A single, full-range control dial for stick and CV-wire applications is equipped to control general welding output. The unit features five ranges with full overlap for stick pipe welding and other processes where slope control is required.

Generator system backs up 1500-mile submarine fiber optics cable network - Pacific Detroit Diesel Allison

Communications technology such as telephone cable and microwave channels has brought Alaska seconds away from the lower 48. More recently, that's been pared to milliseconds thanks to fiber optic cables that now snake along the North Pacific seafloor from Whittier, Alaska, to the Pacific Northwest.

With service over several cables begun in the spring of 1999, Pacific Detroit-Allison's branch in Anchorage, Alaska, was called on to install a modem and highly automated standby generator plant in the fiber optic transmission station being completed in Whittier by Alaska Northstar Communications, a subsidiary of WCI Cable, Inc.

The facility draws 208 V, three-phase power from the Chugach Electrical Association powerplant in Whittier. But any interruption to the supply will automatically trigger two Kohler model 80ROZJ 100 kVA generator sets that also can be monitored and controlled over telephone lines from Anchorage.

Rated at 120/208 V, three-phase, and 60 Hz, the Kohler equipment incorporates John Deere 6059T four-cycle turbocharged diesel engines with six in-line cylinders. The 5.9 L engines displacement engines deliver 150 hp maximum power at the rated speed of 1800 rpm. The engines utilize a manually operated priming pump and incorporate both primary and secondary fuel filters. The engines were built at Deere's Saran, France, facility and combined with the Kohler generators in the U.S. PDDA represents Kohler in Alaska and the Russian Far East.

The gateway to the village of Whittier is vintage Alaska - an ancient string of railroad flat cars haul autos, trucks and busses through two, long, lightless tunnels and by the massive Portage Glacier from Alaska's Seward Highway to the village that straggles along a bay off Prince William Sound.

Whittier was founded during World War II to receive and dispense fuel. The rusting hulks in an extensive tank farm still stand near the foot of the mountains in Chugach National Park. The most prominent structure in town, however, is an anachronistic and towering apartment building - reported to hold the entire population of the village when winter descends.

However, among first sights when one emerges from the final tunnel are two buildings that represent modern technology - fiber optics cable terminals being completed to service cables that run to Juneau, Valdez, and 2000 miles to Oregon and Washington.