Kia applies 8-speed auto box to FWD

Kia Motors has a new eight-speed automatic transmission (8AT), engineered for use in front-wheel drive vehicles, but based on RWD experience.

Are powertrains facing transition?

Could diesel engines be on their way out? asks Ricardo Plc in its latest quarterly journal, RQ.

Ford puts CGI into 1-litre EcoBoost

Ford in the UK has confirmed its three-cylinder 1-litre Fox gasoline engine does have a cylinder block of compacted graphite iron (CGI).

A time to hold nerves and stay calm

As auto executives pay homage by attending Europe's top-class automotive event – this year's Frankfurt motor show, just starting – their minds will be on other matters.

Production of new Smarts gets under way

Production is now under way of the next generation Smart fortwo and the Smart forfour in readiness for the vehicles going on sale in November.

The two new vehicles are built on a new four-wheel-drive architecture that has involved teams from Daimler and Renault which have been working together for the last four years.

The Smart fortwo is being built at Smart's plant in Hambach whereas the forfour and the Renault Twingo are being assembled at the French company's plant in Novo Mesto in Slovenia.

Meanwhile, production of the jointly developed 2-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine has begun at a joint Daimler-Nissan plant, namely the Infiniti Decherd Plant in Decherd, Tennessee.

Interestingly, this new engine will appear, according to sources, in Infinity Q50 vehicles as well as the Mercedes C-Class, which may open a few eyes!

Daf, Paccar link for CGI 11-litre

Daf and Paccar have joined forces to manufacture a new 11-litre diesel engine with a compacted graphite iron (CGI) cylinder block and head.

Production of the new engine begins this autumn at Daf’s plant in Eindhoven, the Netherlands where it will be built alongside the long-serving Daf 9.2-litre engine and the 12.9-litre MX-13 engine.

Just how long the 9.2-litre engine will remain in production remains to be seen; certainly, the arrival of the MX-11 will provide Daf with a golden opportunity to remove its ‘old timer’, cut costs and upsize its products where appropriate.

VW grows in Milton Keynes

Volkswagen has re-affirmed its faith in Milton Keynes, UK with the news that it is to construct a new £25 million headquarters for its financial services building.

No contractor has yet been appointed to handle the work which will cover 100,000 square feet.

Tongwell in Milton Keynes is already the base for the headquarters of Volkswagen Group United Kingdom Ltd and the company’s financial services activities occupies a nearby building.

CGI diesels in the news at Navistar

Diesel engines with compacted graphite iron (CGI) cylinder blocks are hitting the headlines at Navistar International.

Navistar has just showcased its production-ready International TerraStar  4x4 commercial truck, one of the company's newest additions to its Class 5-8 portfolio, at the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Launched in 2010 in a 4x2 configuration, the TerraStar, is the smaller sibling to the DuraStar.

Hotfire engine plant set for a benchmark?

Will JaguarLandRover’s (JLR) new engine plant in Wolverhampton, UK, establish an industry benchmark? That is the question many are asking as work gathers pace to bring this unique plant to the first stage of fruition.

Ratan Tata, Tata Motor’s supremo will hope so. He will expect it to be ‘best-in-class’ when he comes to tour the plant in the final stages of shake-down as production gradually ramps up.

At the Geneva Motor Show, executives announced JLR would add a further £155million to its original investment commitment of £355million making it a genuine £500million plant

Daimler readies nine-speed gearbox

JaguarLandRover (JLR) will not be the only European passenger car maker to offer a nine-speed automatic transmission. Daimler in Germany is working on one too that will appear first in its AMG offering and other large cars.

Daimler’s Mercedes transmission plant at Stuttgart Untertuekheim is currently the scene of much activity as some of the latest machine tools are being put in place ready for the start of production.

All the machines delivered to the plant have passed pre-acceptance trials in vendors’ plants. The implication is that they have achieved both quality and cycle time criteria for one of the Europe’s most demanding customers.

‘King of the Road’ Scania widens CGI use

SCOOP – WORLD EXCLUSIVE

Scania, it can be revealed, is the latest heavy commercial vehicle maker to widen its use of compacted graphite iron (CGI) in diesel engines.

Our detailed and analytical process of elimination lifts the veil on Scania’s foundry in Södertälje, Sweden, as the latest to install SinterCast’s process control technology to produce CGI. SinterCast is banned from naming its customer.

Already making use of CGI cylinder blocks for its top-of-the-range V-8 truck engine – the 90-degree blocks for this engine are sourced from Halberg-Guss’s foundry in Leipzig, Germany which also uses SinterCast’s CGI process control technology – it is now known that from March of this year Scania will use high-strength CGI material from its own tied foundry to produce cylinder blocks for its popular 12.7-litre truck engine So two of Scania’s engine lines will carry CGI blocks.

The Swedish truck maker also makes a 9.3-litre engine, the blocks of which could later become the subject of further CGI expansion. The 9.3-, 12.7- and 16.4-litre engines share the same bores to offer parts’ commonality.

Ubisense wins Mercedes S-Class job

Following extensive proof-of-concept at the Daimler plant in Rastatt, Ubisense has been was awarded a contract to equip the Mercedes S-Class premium car assembly line in the Sindelfingen plant.

The project was divided into two phases: the pilot phase covered two-line segments and the associated DC tools provided the means to integrate and test the solution; the system will now be installed at the remaining stations and all the DC tools will be integrated.

The Ubisense Smart Factory System automates the process of matching a particular tool with a vehicle on the production line, eliminating the need for the operator to scan vehicle bar code ID numbers. In this way, the system ensures that the correct tool program is being used for the particular vehicle at the station.

In addition, the exact location of each vehicle is tracked continuously and matched to the vehicle ID which is then supplied to external worker assistance systems as the vehicle arrives at each station. This is particularly useful on line segments where traditional vehicle sensing technologies are not available.