Cope did not reveal the names of the company's OEM customers but it is known that Cummins, Ford and General Motors, to name but three, have all announced new vee-diesel engine programmes, but have given little away of engine details or performance. The new engines will appear in the 2009 to 2010 timeframe. GM claims its turbo-diesel will lift fuel efficiency by 25% for North American light duty trucks after 2009. According to Cope, the diesel engine will dominate in the US pickup and SUV sectors, and he predicted that the majority of the new vee-diesels would rely on CGI cylinder blocks.

This is a view shared by Luiz Tarquinio S. Ferro, president and chief executive officer of the foundry Tupy SA in Joinville, Brazil. He said that CGI would become the dominant material for vee-diesel cylinder blocks and for commercial vehicle cylinder blocks and heads. In commercial vehicle applications, he stated that CGI could provide weight savings of 100 to 120kg over conventional grey iron. He added that the US vee-diesel market is a significant growth opportunity for CGI, "with start of production during 2008".

Already, Ford has developed a 2.7-litre V6 diesel engine and a 3.6-litre V8 diesel engine with CGI cylinder blocks. These engines are built in Dagenham, UK. The company also has on the stocks a 4.4-litre V8, for the Ford F-Series pickup, and a 6.7-litre V8 engine. Both of these engines will be built in Chihuahua, Mexico. Ford has yet to disclose this information. It is also known that Navistar International is to manufacture 11- and 13-litre truck diesel engines in the US, based on designs by MAN of Germany. The MAN engines use CGI cylinder blocks.

Also, in the last few days, Paccar has announced plans to build a US$400m facility and technical centre in Columbus, Mississippi. The facility will manufacture 12.9-litre and 9.2-litre I6 diesel engines starting 2009. The 12.9-litre engine designed by DAF in Eindhoven, Holland, uses CGI cylinder blocks and heads supplied by Fritz Winter in Germany.

It is also known that Technocast has just started the production of diesel engine cylinder blocks and heads. Technocast, based in Saltillo, Mexico, has the capability to produce CGI cylinder blocks and heads using SinterCast process control technology. Such components will be required to be machined by the foundry's customers, most likely in North America. Technocast's main customer is Caterpillar, which has already used CGI parts in production engines.

Detroit Diesel, part of Daimler, is another major diesel engine maker in the US; its latest I6 diesel engine is labelled the 900 and delivers 350hp. Detroit Diesel builds engines based on designs by Mercedes-Benz, another user of CGI for cylinder blocks from its foundry in Mannheim, Germany. A small company, MBE Cylinder Heads and Manifolds of Mooresville, North Carolina, machines CGI blocks offering twice the strength with no weight gain.

MAG Industrial Automations Systems of Sterling Heights, Michigan, has grown on the back of recent acquisitions in the European machine sector. Its businesses include Cincinnati, CrossHüller Ex-cello Lamb, Fadal, Giddings & Lewis, Hüller Hille, Turmatic Systems Inc, Witzig & Frank, FMS and Boehringer. The fact that the company has won these huge contracts suggests it is leading in the race to provide the automotive engine business with machine tools to process the harder CGI material. Lamb Technicon's machines were the first to be used by Ford at Dagenham to machine V6 CGI cylinder blocks. According to Cope, the tool life and productivity associated with machining CGI are currently 80% of those of conventional grey iron. "But further improvements are expected," he declared.

Source: Automotive World
Source: Factiva