Siemens VDO and Federal Mogul Corp. are joining forces to develop a new Glow Plug Integrated Pressure Sensor (GPPS) for next-generation clean diesel engines – a device designed to help optimize the combustion process in light, medium and heavy duty vehicles by helping to increase engine power while lowering fuel consumption and emissions.
GPPS offers what the two companies consider to be a simple in-cylinder solution to help significantly reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) by integrating key functions into the same compact space, said Bret Sauerwein, gm for Siemens VDO’s sensors division.
The sensor, integrated into the glow plug due to lack of room in the cylinder chamber, measures combustion inside the engine and provides feedback to the engine-management system, which controls the timing and quantity of fuel injected into the cylinder to stabilize combustion temperatures, he explained. That allows the engine to adjust injection characteristics to avoid combustion conditions producing high NOx levels, Sauerwein added.
As global emissions standards become stricter, the GPPS technology also provides a solution to significantly reduce the cost, weight and packaging of diesel aftertreatment solutions, he said. “Achieving low combustion temperatures in the cylinder is key to lowering NOx emissions because raw NOx is primarily emitted at the engine's peak combustion temperature and pressure,” Sauerwein noted.
Siemens VDO and Federal-Mogul Corp. have worked on GPPS technology since 2003 and are scheduling this device for production in 2008.
