Digital valves open up engine possibilities
08-14-18, 09:56 AM
#1
Digital valves open up engine possibilities
Pretty interesting:
https://newatlas.com/camcon-digital-...-system/55827/
https://newatlas.com/camcon-digital-...-system/55827/
British company Camcon Automotive has built the first fully electronic engine valve system, uncoupled from the crankshaft, that offers unprecedented control over the combustion cycle. On top of power and emissions improvements, it also opens up some weird and wonderful capabilities we've never seen before, such as giving 4-stroke engines brief 2-stroke power boosts.
08-14-18, 01:20 PM
#2
Lead Lap
hasn't koenigsegg been working on something like this for awhile?
08-15-18, 11:09 AM
#4
08-15-18, 05:15 PM
#5
Read both articles but I don't see many of the claimed advantages.
I see two obvious benefits:
(1) simpler shutdown of unneeded cylinders under low-load conditions
(2) greater valve lift at low and mid-range rpms for slightly better breathing.
That's it. We already can easily vary valve timing over a considerable range. We can't increase the valve opening gap at high rpms because the engine redline is set by several factors, one of them being valve float. And I'm not sure increasing the gap at low rpms is that beneficial, since we already have methods of forcing a much greater charge of air through an opening (turbos, superchargers). I guess having the ability to customize valve timings on individual cylinders would be potentially useful, but I don't know how much one cylinder varies from another. I doubt it's very much.
Am I missing something?
I see two obvious benefits:
(1) simpler shutdown of unneeded cylinders under low-load conditions
(2) greater valve lift at low and mid-range rpms for slightly better breathing.
That's it. We already can easily vary valve timing over a considerable range. We can't increase the valve opening gap at high rpms because the engine redline is set by several factors, one of them being valve float. And I'm not sure increasing the gap at low rpms is that beneficial, since we already have methods of forcing a much greater charge of air through an opening (turbos, superchargers). I guess having the ability to customize valve timings on individual cylinders would be potentially useful, but I don't know how much one cylinder varies from another. I doubt it's very much.
Am I missing something?
Last edited by riredale; 08-15-18 at 05:25 PM.
08-15-18, 06:52 PM
#6
Lexus Champion
A digital valvetrain with continually-variable valve timing and valve lift -- varying from early opening to late closing, and varying how large the opening is and how long valves can stay open -- is the equivalent of the continuously-variable transmission. Like the CVT that allows the transmission to be in the idea gear ratio, CVVT allows the valve opening to be always be the perfect position, regardless of engine speed, from idle to screaming. This promises to reduce emissions and increase fuel efficiency.
We now have direct, carefully-metered fuel injection; soon we will have carefully-metered, continuously-variable valve opening and closing (and with the desmodromic system that precisely opens and closes valves without springs, valve-float will become history), next we should get rid of the throttle valve and implement direct air injection. Get rid of vacuum air intake and replace it with carefully-metered, positive pressure air intake (electrically-powered compressor).
We now have direct, carefully-metered fuel injection; soon we will have carefully-metered, continuously-variable valve opening and closing (and with the desmodromic system that precisely opens and closes valves without springs, valve-float will become history), next we should get rid of the throttle valve and implement direct air injection. Get rid of vacuum air intake and replace it with carefully-metered, positive pressure air intake (electrically-powered compressor).
08-15-18, 10:10 PM
#7
Lexus Champion
Electric valves are a disaster waiting to happen. If they malfunction hello piston and valve collision, unless the engine is non-interference which doesn't seem viable with high compression engines.
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