The Commercial Vehicle Forum
2016 is being organised by Threefold which has over 30+ years of management
experience in the events sector and has successfully delivered events in Asia.
In layman’s term, engine of a
commercial vehicle is synonymous to the heart in a human body. Everybody knows
that it needs to stay healthy with appropriate rest time, also considering the
base load and the peak load. Yet, it is one of the most abused organ too.
Similar is the case with the “engines” – irrespective of the category of
commercial vehicle.
Further, engine development is
a process which has never stopped since its existence. It’s a cult community of
geeks, designers, manufacturers, integrators and testers. Process seems simple
– create hypothesis, develop, validate, iterate, re-validate, test, iterate…
However, professionals follow this seemingly simple process and dedicate their
lives to create dent in the sky with the “New Engine Technology”.
Trucks and buses are
predominantly powered by heavy duty diesel engines. However, Modern diesel
engines are lighter and more powerful, fuel efficient and environment-friendly.
Today there are two proven approaches to gear up for the change when India is
staring at BSIV.
Which approach to work upon is
driven by a number of objectives “Overall cost over the service life of a
vehicle and the closely related factor of efficiency in transportation.”
However, most of us are aware that the later objective in India through the
lens of on-ground practical efficiency was being managed by “Overloading”
against OEMs recommendations.
In today’s time, the focus is
also on further reduction in fuel consumption, e.g. by means of downsizing and
downspeeding or evaluating alternate fuels. These changes affect component
stress in the valve train system. To keep the engine affordable, components
should be kept simple. Further complexity comes into play with the combustion
chamber and maintenance of temperatures, charge cycles and electrification. To
top it all, service life requirements need to be taken care of, considering how
price sensitive the Indian market is.
So primary question is in the
hands of engine R&D experts. When they begin, they first have to choose the
approach to develop on. Answer comes from the market itself, which market is
the engine being developed for? What is the outlook of the buyer? Has the buyer
started to attach higher importance to overall cost of ownership? What is the
infrastructure of the country?
In India, fuel cost is said to
contribute to almost 50-60 per cent of operating costs, and SCR delivers better
fuel efficiency compared to cooled EGR + DOC / open filter. This moves the
needle favour of SCR in the Indian context, especially when viewed through the
lens of lower risk on engine durability, emissions durability and better fuel
economy. Is BSIV expected to change the game play? This is out there for
industry professionals to debate and decide and also charter the next course of
action with the “Indian Automotive Heart AKA engine”.
(Source: Commercial Vehicle Forum 2016)