Future Auto Technology - 2008 SAE Wrap-Up

SAE IN DETROIT
Bits and Pieces of the Auto Industry
By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel.com
Detroit Bureau

We know it’s spring here in Southeast Michigan when the SAE (formerly known as the Society of Automotive Engineers – now SAE International to reflect interests broader than just automotive) comes to town for their annual trade show. Even though it shrinks a bit each year there are always plenty of interesting tidbits to catch our attention and demonstrate in real terms where the industry is going - clips and clamps, seals and grommets, crash test dummies and data management systems, software and bearing balls . . . everything you need to design, test and build an automobile, truck, airplane, motorcycle or lawn mower.

Winning third place in the prestigious Pace Awards, and first place in my esoteric semantics competition, is a system developed by Delphi and Sirius to facilitate backseat TV. It’s called “Backward Compatible Hierarchical Modulation.” This system “allows an order of hierarchical modulation never seen before.” Imagine that. Let’s see you wrap your brain around those semantics. The system allows a video signal to be received within the existing Sirius radio bandwidth to support TV reception in that back seat screen and requires just two small roof antennas.

Did you ever see a Mercedes-Benz-powered airplane. Well, you might if you look hard. MBtech (Mercedes-Benz Technology) folks have repurposed a 2.0-liter turbo-diesel now powering A-Class cars in Europe for use in light aircraft from Diamond. With 170 horsepower and gobs of torque they say this little diesel will vastly outperform other light aircraft engines including much better fuel mileage.

What’s new in injection molding – you might be desperate to know. Well, over at the Thixomat booth we found out that they are doing it with magnesium. A 16-inch 5-spoke custom wheel they produce weighs about six pounds. Thin little molded housings are way stronger than engineered plastics and are so thin we could use them for cell phone covers – another use they demonstrate.

I don’t know if I’m an odd duck in this respect, but really big vehicles just seem to call out to me to get in a drive. The RG33 Series, 6X6 Mine-Protected military vehicle is one of those. The door was open, it seemed to have the military ‘no-key’ ignition and it was huge. I didn’t quite dare risk a clandestine drive in here, of course, but I wanted to. Built by BAE Systems of Santa Clara, CA the PR guy couldn’t tell me how much the military pays for one of these but it must be way more than the taxes I pay in a year - or in 20 years. It weighs 28 tons loaded and is the size of a heavily armored deuce-and-a-half. Its primary purpose is as a personnel carrier and accommodates 14 troops . . . not so comfortably. It will, though, protect the troops from IEDs, anti-tank mines and other ballistic threats.

Another piece of interesting technology, acoustic attenuation, is shown by Mann+Hummel, a German company with offices and manufacturing facilities around the world and US headquarters in Portage, MI, a small town near Kalamzoo. If you’ve driven a VW GTI or GLI and been amazed at the sweet melodic sound of the 2.0-liter, turbo approaching red line – as compared to any other 4-banger raucously doing the same – you’ve heard the result of this technology. Some inspired acoustic engineer has figured out how to channel and redirect the sound waves coming from under the hood to make that engine sing. This is the company, by the way, that pioneered the use of high-strength, light-weight plastics that do the work formerly performed by cast metals, like intake manifolds and the like. On their drawing board, and on cars soon is a plastic oil pan. www.mann-hummel.com.

Two unconventional engine technologies are here again - ones we’ve seen before that each year become a little more practical – the Cyclone engine and the Scuderi Air-Hybrid engine.

The Cyclone is a modern iteration of the old, impractical steam engine and it won the SAE Tech Award for 2008. Wilson McQueen, their charming marketing guy, explains that this technology constitutes sort of a steam engine brought into the modern age and has none of the disadvantages of the old steam engines – no tendency to explode, for example. It can be run on low pressure and even capture waste heat from other engines to heat its own water. Here at SAE they have mock-ups of applications from a tiny one powering a weed-wacker, to a huge one just right for a Class 8 semi tractor. They have licensed the technology to a company that will have a Cyclone-powered lawn mowers on the market in 2010 and other applications are still under development. I wonder if I can get a Cyclone lawn mower to test on my challenging yard. To see this technology go to: www.cyclonepower.com.

That Scuderi Air-Hybrid is at least as unconventional. They have broken up the traditional 4-stroke cycle into 2 - 2-stroke cycles. One cylinder just pumps air to feed the other which does the powering. The power cylinder fires on every down stroke (rather than on alternate down strokes like conventional engines) firing after top dead center for more efficiency. The former, powered by the latter, pumps air into a storage tank and in turn into the power cylinder acting much like a supercharger. Any kind of fuel can be used from peanut oil to jet fuel. Scuderi (a family business) has developed and patented a unique valve design that makes this all possible. I found it fascinating. Check them out at: www.scuderigroup.com.

A technology that has great promise for accident avoidance is Hella’s lane-change warning system already in a half-dozen vehicle and soon to be in the Audi A4. Sensors warn the driver through an optical indicator in each side mirror when a vehicle has entered the blind spot on either side. I have experience such a system on a Volvo product and I found it helpful and entirely unobtrusive. www.hella.com

Perhaps the most entertaining exhibit on the floor was Toyota’s trumpet-playing robot. Not just a mechanical humanoid with recorded music but a gadget with artificial lips and lungs playing soft music on a real coronet with realistically articulated fingers while moving gracefully around on complex, human-like joints. The PR gal tells me that Toyota is seriously developing robots to assist people with household needs, personal mobility, medical needs and, of course, manufacturing processes. The project is called Toyota Partners and these cyborgs are intended to be marketable within 10 years. A sibling of our trumpet player has been programmed to play the violin, I found out. Perhaps someday we’ll have a full Toyota symphony. You can see it at: www.toyota.co.jp/en.

We always have a great time browsing the bits, pieces and processes at the SAE International show. This year was no exception, in spite of the continuing shrinkage in overall size of the show. The US auto business is struggling but there is no lack of creativity and innovation here.