Demand for ever-higher diesel injection pressures is being addressed by Delphi with a revolutionary fuel system for heavy truck engines which combines common-rail and unit-injector technology.
It will rival the fundamentally different Amplifier Piston Common Rail System (APCRS) from rival Bosch, which uses stepped-piston intensifiers to achieve pressures above about 2,000 bar. The new Delphi F1 'hybrid' system, aimed at probable Euro 6 requirements in five years' time, promises up to 2,500 bar initially, but with the potential to go up to 2,750 bar eventually.
But crucially it is also designed to achieve greater control flexibility than any intensifier, unit-injector or unit-pump system, in efforts to cut NOx emissions especially, without compromising fuel consumption.
The new system brings together the absolute pressure advantages of Delphi's established two-solenoid E3 unit-injectors and unit-pumps - as specified on all Euro 4 Volvo/Renault and DAF engines - with the pre- and post-injection control precision of an all-new heavy-duty common-rail system. This is due to go into production in mid-2009 for an as yet unidentified truck manufacturer.
Though Delphi is also deciding to remain tight-lipped about the likely first customer for the F1 hybrid system, much of the development work being done in the company's technical centre at Park Royal in north-west London is using Volvo engine componentry.
Meanwhile, Delphi has won more fuel system conquest business from Bosch. For the first time, it has won a contract to supply heavy-duty injection equipment to DaimlerChrysler. Initially available for the North American market, Delphi E3 'smart' injectors are being specified on the unit pump equipped 12.8-litre MBE4000 and up to 7.2-litre Mercedes-Benz 900 Series engines going into EPA 2007 compliant Freightliner chassis.
The system's separate pump assemblies, driven from the main engine camshaft, continue however to be sourced from rival Bosch.
All Delphi's unit pump and unit injector components, being supplied to the Volvo Group, DAF and now DaimlerChrysler, are produced in its Stonehouse, Gloucestershire plant, where the common-rail and hybrid system will also be manufactured, though nozzle assemblies come from another Delphi manufacturing facility based at Sudbury, Suffolk.
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