Automaker starts the technological race

Began to be tested the first technologies aimed at improving the efficiency of the Brazilian cars such as determines the new automotive system. Upon request of automakers, Honeywell and BorgWarner-American multinationals established in São Paulo – are already undergoing tests of prototypes turbos that can equip cars produced in the country. At the same time, the German Continental performs tests involving direct fuel injection systems-technology competitor Bosch also evaluates bring to the Brazilian market.
The development in the field of engines happens when the industry also seeks alternative materials to make cars lighter, less polluting, and without having to give up the power of the vehicle.
The technologies are already available in mature markets, the case of the United States and Europe. And some of them do not come to be big news in Brazil. Turbochargers, for example, have already been applied here in the 1990 by Fiat, with a turbocharged version of the one, and by Volkswagen, which also market tested versions of Gol and Parati models equipped with turbos between 2000 and 2005.
The difference is that now these innovations need to be adapted to a bi-fuel engine system (flex), which became prevalent in the Brazilian cars. The manufacturers of turbos say that this task has been carried out without the need for drastic changes in the product. Even so, it was necessary to test new materials-such as stainless steel rather than cast iron turbines-to face the highest working temperature flex engines.
Honeywell turbocharging systems, which produces in Guarulhos, in Sao Paulo, already put to run for more than four thousand hours your turbo prototype for Brazilian engines. "That was more than enough to prove that there is no obstacle to the introduction of the technology", says José Rubens Vicari, Director-General of Honeywell transportation systems.
Today, the application of turbos in Brazil is restricted to commercial vehicles and agricultural machinery, markets in which Honeywell and BorgWarner meet with an annual production capacity of 600 thousand equipment together. But the possibility of bringing the technology to cars opens a new market, estimated by manufacturers between 700 000 and 1.3 million vehicles.
The expectation is that the application start with the more expensive cars, with more than 1.6 engine, where the cost of the equipment can be better. Popular segments of the market, more sensitive to price increases, the update of the thrusters will be for a later step.
Vicari, Honeywell, reports that automakers already are negotiating the price of the turbos, but the path for the introduction of technology is still long. If confirmed the technical and economic feasibility of the equipment, you must develop suppliers, to adapt the product to the needs of each company and investing in industrial installations for, two years from now, start manufacture on a commercial scale.
To take that next step, however, the manufacturers of the equipment still waiting for the green signal from the automakers. "We cannot do this without the formal commitment of our customers," said Arnaldo Iezzi, Director-General of BorgWarner, which last week opened a factory in Itatiba, São Paulo State, where 20% of the area reserved for the arrival of new technologies.
Goals of the new automotive policy, named Innovate, force automakers installed in Brazil to improve by at least 12% energy efficiency of automobiles until 2017, which means a reduction in fuel consumption to the tune of 13.6%. This, according to experts, will lead to an advance in engine development programmes in the country, since the technology available today is insufficient to comply with the requirements of the Government. Anfavea estimates-entity which houses the vehicle manufacturers-, point to r $ 14 billion minimum investments in innovation and engineering by automakers over the next five years.
"Any solution that will contribute to reducing fuel consumption is treated as potential to be studied and validated," says Anderson Citron, Director of the Division of Continental engines. In this context, the German multinational has investigated the adaptation mechanisms of direct fuel injection to the Brazilian reality. The studies, says Citron, have shown results that support the goals of the Innovation.
Together, the turbochargers, playing air in the cylinders of the engine, and the mechanisms for direct injection of fuel into the combustion chamber put Brazil in the direction of propulsion systems more compact and therefore lighter. The process is known, in the industry jargon, as downsizing.
The consumer economy, says Citron, can reach 15%, but this is a gain that varies according to the vehicle architecture. Therefore, the industry is working on several fronts to reach the new standards of efficiency, as the application of ever lighter materials in almost all components. SKF, for example, managed from the exchange of steel, cast iron 15% reduction in the weight of wheel bearings. The new generation of parts was developed for two automakers and consumed investments of $ 5 million. Already Adecol, that produces, in Guarulhos, industrial adhesives-an alternative to using the screws-says that the demand of automakers grew 40% last year.