At a time when many manufacturers are struggling with the challenge of obtaining better values in fuel savings, all the technical details seem to be of utmost importance. If 4-cylinder mechanics were the recipients of this technology, cylinder deactivation can now be extended to 3-cylinder mechanics, by the hand of Schaeffler Automotive.
Automotive component maker Schaeffler has announced that it is developing cylinder deactivation technology for blocks of just 3 cylinders. Although they already produce the same technology in 8 and 4 cylinder engines, this had not yet been implemented in unique cylinder blocks, where issues such as balance and vibrations gain another importance.
To make it possible to deactivate cylinders in three-cylinder mechanics, Schaeffler used hydraulic impellers with bearing heads, modified and developed especially for the introduction of this technology. In other words: under normal engine operating conditions, the lobes of the camshafts, which pass through the bearing of the hydraulic impeller, make the valves actuate.
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When cylinder deactivation takes effect the camshaft continues to rotate, but the control springs in the hydraulic impeller move it in position, preventing the camshaft lobe from contacting the impeller bearing. In this way the valves of the “inactive” cylinder remain closed.
The gains, according to Schaeffler, can reach marginal values of up to 3% in savings, which is considerable if we take into account the added savings that 3-cylinder mechanics already provide.
However, technology does not live only on advantages. When talking about mechanics, which as a result of cylinder deactivation, will depend on only 2 cylinders, issues such as noise, vibration and harshness are aspects to take into account when improving a system of this type. A system that in itself will have implications not at the level not of the production of compatible impeller modules, but of its application in three-cylindrical blocks.
One more innovation that comes to counteract the idea of lack of investment in gasoline engines, which could in the near future put 3-cylinder mechanics to compete more and more with the consumption of equivalent Diesel blocks.
