Innovative piston technology for passenger cars and utility vehicles by KS Kolbenschmidt Profound piston system expertise

Introduction The major trends in state-of-the-art combustion engines, such as downsizing, supercharging and direct injection, intended to comply with required exhaust gas limits and to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, remain drivers of innovation for new piston technologies. For modern piston systems, this means they must simultaneously comply with the demands for reduced friction, low weight and increased durability at maximum strain. considerably increased strength. In the meantime, we were able to transfer the experience gained from the new material and develop a diesel piston alloy...

Figure 2 illustrates the high cycle fatigue of the new alloy and KS 1295 (HCF@ T = 300 °C) as a function of the thermal fatigue (ThF@Tmax = 350 °C). The combination of alloy modification, improved tool concept and optimised processing simultaneously results in a significant improvement of ThF values (+35 %) and HCF values (+28 %) compared with the KS 1295 standard alloy. The results of ex-engine testing confirmed the results of in-engine testing. The service life of pistons made from the new alloy was 50 percent longer than the service life of pistons made from the KS 1295 standard alloy. In...

Top performance and reduced consumption with passenger car steel pistons Compared with aluminium pistons, modern steel pistons provide a robust solution solution for future supercharged diesel engines with specific engine performances in excess of 100 kilowatts per litre and ignition pressures beyond 200 bar. The focus during the transition to steel as the piston material lies not only on the realisation of increased performance, but also on the improved thermodynamic efficiency achieved with the steel piston and the potential reduction in friction resulting from a piston design that is geared...

The consistent ongoing development of the LITEKS® piston design up to the current third generation has enabled the weight advantage compared with the standard piston design to be increased to 28 %. The new KS 309 TM highperformance alloy provided the basis for this enhancement, in connection with further optimised casting technologies and the consistent adaptation of the design to the resulting material-specific benefits. In order to reduce the weight, we brought casting tool technology to series maturity that represents recesses in the weight pockets of the ring zone for the first time. This...

Tribometer tests confirm that the NANOFRIKS® coating reduces the dry-friction coefficient and wear by more than 50 % compared with standard series coatings. To this end, NANOFRIKS® is setting new standards by featuring an adapted combination of nano particles, binding agents, solid lubricants and additives. NANOFRIKS® therefore sustainably complies with the current customer requirements profile with respect to reduced consumption and high reliability as part of inengine use (Figure 7). The successful series introduction of NANOFRIKS® at leading car manufacturers around the world emphasises KS...

The extremely low compression heights enabled by this piston design amount to less than 50 % of the cylinder diameter (Figure  9). In the same way as for pistons that are friction-welded twice, we were able to transfer the benefits regarding friction, weight, wear and cavitation to this design. KS system expertise reduces emissions and fuel consumption In recent years, KS Kolbenschmidt has consistently built up expertise in designing, developing and producing systematically optimised piston systems. We successfully operate a dedicated friction output test bench for passenger car applications...

KS Kolbenschmidt GmbH · Karl-Schmidt Str. · 74172 Neckarsulm · Germany Tel. +49 7132 33-0 · Fax +49 7132 33-27 96 · www.kspg.com Subject to change. Printed in Germany. © KSPG AG – 09/2013