|
Achates Power is an American developer of opposed-piston, two-stroke, compression ignition engines for use in commercial and passenger vehicles. Based in San Diego, Calif., the company was founded in 2004 by Dr. James Lemke. According to Achates Power, its opposed-piston, two-stroke engine has demonstrated an increase in fuel efficiency and similar engine-out emissions levels〔Berg, Tom; Lockwood, Rolf; Park, Jim (January 12, 2012) “Engines Tomorrow: What Types of Engines Will You Be Selling Parts for in the Future?”, Heavy Duty Trucking〕 when compared to the Ford Power Stroke engine, named one of the leading medium-duty diesel engines.〔Murphy, Tom (October 1, 2010) “Ford Power Stroke Wins Diesel Shootout”, Ward’s AutoWorld〕 More recently, the company published a technical paper citing a 30 percent fuel economy improvement when its engine was benchmarked against a next-generation diesel engine equipped with advanced technologies. The paper also highlighted the Achates Power engine's potential to meet Tier 3/LEV III emissions and 2025 CAFE. In December 2012, the company announced that it had been selected as a subcontractor to AVL Powertrain Engineering, Inc. to build the next-generation combat engine for the U.S. Army.〔Ponticel, Patrick (December 19, 2012) “U.S. Army tabs AVL and Achates Power for new-generation engine”, SAE Automotive Engineering International Online〕 Less than a year later, in October 2013, Achates Power and Fairbanks Morse Engine signed a joint development and licensing agreement to reduce emissions and fuel consumption of Fairbanks Morse proprietary and dual-fuel opposed-piston engines.〔Zoia, David (January 2, 2014) “Achates Finding Traction with Opposed-Piston Engine”, WardsAuto.com〕 Achates Power is privately owned and backed by Sequoia Capital, RockPort Capital Partners, Madrone Capital Partners, Triangle Peak Partners and Interwest Partners. ==Engine Architecture== The Achates Power opposed-piston engine, is modeled after the opposed-piston architecture made popular by the Junkers Jumo 205/207 aviation engines developed in the 1930s. The design positions two pistons per cylinder—working in opposite, reciprocating motion. This eliminates parts including the cylinder head and valvetrain, improving overall engine efficiency as these components are considered primary contributors to heat and friction losses.〔Flint, Martin; Pirault, Jean-Pierre (October 2009) Opposed Piston Engines – Evolution, Use and Future Applications, ISBN 978-0-7680-1800-4〕 The cylinder head and valvetrain systems are also among the most complex and costly elements of conventional engines. The two-stroke cycle compounds the efficiency benefits of the opposed-piston engine architecture. With this cycle, each combustion event is shorter in duration and, therefore, closer to optimum timing as compared to four-stroke engines. Two-stroke engines are also smaller in displacement and size compared to four-stroke engines for similar performance.〔 While development of historic opposed-piston engines ceased for use in on-road car and truck applications with the introduction of modern emissions standards,〔 Achates Power says that it has patented many modifications to the original architecture〔http://www.patentdocs.org/〕 in order to meet current standards. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Achates Power」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|