Take a look inside Koenigsegg's headquarters and peek at its future tech

[scannon]

Air actuated valves, 30% increase in HP, torque and fuel mileage and 50% reduction in emissions.

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/02/25/take-a-look-inside-koenigseggs-headquarters-and-peek-at-their-f/?a_dgi=aolshare_email

[lancylad]

That looks very interesting, and makes sense.

[MHKflyer52]

That is very interesting. Wounder how long it will take to make it into an auto that will be massed produced.

[scannon]

That is very interesting. Wounder how long it will take to make it into an auto that will be massed produced.

 

If the HP, torque, fuel mileage and emissions claims are proved true it should trickle down to cars us mere mortals can afford fairly quickly.

[coffee break]

Is similar technology used if F1 engines?

[Hank]

I heard Koenigsegg isn't really bald. It's a solar panel for a sex machine.

[scannon]

Is similar technology used if F1 engines?

They do use pneumatically actuated valves but I don't know if it is a similar system.

[xflow7]

In fact, actuation of the valves in F1 engines is still via camshafts. What they *do* employ are pneumatic valve return springs, in place of coil springs.

 

As someone who has worked on an advanced engine program, I tend to be pretty skeptical of things like this and the claims that are made. For one thing, when they quote the power and torque increases, the obvious question is whether those have actually been achieved on a test bench and whether they account for the accessory losses of pressurizing the air. All too frequently, people throw out numbers like that recorded from a dyno where, for instance, the air supply is coming from an off-line compressor and thus the energy required for actuation isn't accounted for.

 

The other thing I'd be concerned about is whether their motion profile control is good enough to ensure a soft landing on the valve seat at all engine speeds. For all the downsides of a mechanical camshaft, if you can keep the valve stem in contact with the lobe (stiff spring), you know pretty damn well that you can control how the valve seats. With a good enough servo-pneumatic control system, it should in principle be possible, but it's not trivial. Throw in variables due to seals wearing in the actuators, etc. and it's even more complex. That could have a dramatic affect on component life.

 

Also, the CEO of that Cargine company throws out "a few milliseconds delay" like it's no big deal. 1ms at 10,000rpm is 60 degrees of crank angle. If the phase delay is totally predictable and repeatable, and the engine speed doesn't change too quickly, you can tolerate that, but again it makes life pretty complicated.

 

Anyway, none of that is really to poo-poo the development. It's great that folks are working on that sort of thing and I'd love to see it succeed. It's just that scopes set up on test benches and even lab demonstrations of whole-engine operation can easily make a technology look a lot more feasible or mature than it really is.

 

The idea of replacing camshafts with active control by pneumatic/electromagnetic/electrohydraulic/etc. actuators is not new. It's been a topic of lots of research and development for quite some time (at least 15 or 20 years). There are lots of pitfalls that need to be dealt with.

 

Dave