World's first fully digital valves open up engine possibilities

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Binary_Bark

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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.

Variable valve timing is nothing new. It's been obvious to manufacturers for decades that the optimal valve operation is different when the engine's doing different things, and that changing the timing, lift and duration of the valve events on an engine to suit different scenarios can result in power, torque, efficiency and emissions advantages.

What makes Camcon's system different is that it allows complete, instant and unrestricted control over exactly what any intake or exhaust valve is doing, at any time, regardless of what the engine itself is doing. That's because Camcon's IVA (Intelligent Valve Actuation) system is fully electronic, with no mechanical attachment to the crankshaft.

There are no timing belts or valve springs, with each valve getting its own miniature camshaft, complete with a desmodromic system that opens and closes the valves precisely and mechanically. And instead of being driven off the crank, each valve's camshaft is controlled by an electric motor.

These motors can rotate either way with total precision, and for a given valve event they can rotate through fully to give 100 percent of the available valve lift, or they can stop part-way through and return back to closed, so you can get literally any degree of valve lift you want, at any time. There's a video at the bottom of the page to give you a better visual explanation.

The system knows the position of the crankshaft at all times thanks to a rotary position sensor – in fact, the whole system runs under real-time, closed-loop control, so that valve events are timed perfectly against what the motor's doing.

[video=youtube;XdEhg9JDuEw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdEhg9JDuEw[/video]
Click to expand...

Read More At: https://newatlas.com/camcon-digital-iva-valve-system/55827/
 
We are in the last gasp of internal combustion engines. This sort of technology combined with Mazda's HCCI technology could result in extremely efficient and powerful engines.
 
I thought HCCI were Merc, but i dont know anymore, that was 2008 when my fellow graduates researched the HCCI as final year project.
 
Mazda has production HCCI engines coming next year. I think they call it SCCI.

Link
 
Hmmm... interesting, didn't Merc also developed the rotary engine (****el cycle) and then sell it to Mazda. Looks like the same thing again. HCCI was prone to have pre-ignition combustion and it cracks the piston, wonder how they control this or use different material at the piston.

This is going to be exciting, as HCCI was essentially a "petrol-fuelled diesel cycle". It will have more power per cycle while using much less fuel.
 
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Jchan11hk said:
Hmmm... interesting, didn't Merc also developed the rotary engine (****er cycle) and then sell it to Mazda. Looks like the same thing again. HCCI was prone to have pre-ignition combustion and it cracks the piston, wonder how they control this or use different material at the piston.

This is going to be exciting, as HCCI was essentially a "petrol-fuelled diesel cycle". It will have more power per cycle while using much less fuel.
Click to expand...

Felix W a n kel didn't work for Mercedes Benz. Mercedes Benz was not involved.

Don't know if Mercedes Benz worked on HCCI. read the article to see how Mazda overcame the issues.
 
Cool man, will read it thru later on. At least one company is hanging onto the IC engines.
 
So many things that can fail. On a 24 valve you will have 24 little electric motors. They will need a lot of torque to open a valve and will be placing a big demand on the cars electrical system.
Those 24 motors will be exposed to huge amounts of heat and vibration. Wondering about reliability?
 
qscwbt said:
So many things that can fail. On a 24 valve you will have 24 little electric motors. They will need a lot of torque to open a valve and will be placing a big demand on the cars electrical system.
Those 24 motors will be exposed to huge amounts of heat and vibration. Wondering about reliability?
Click to expand...

I'm gonna assume that they'll tell you that the chances of these parts failing, are much smaller than the chance of a cambelt snapping. Not saying it's true, I am pre-empting what their answer would be.
 
Okay, finished reading it, so they added the spark plug to make it a controlled combustion, so it won't have the self-combustion characteristics. That's clever but also it means it wont be a completely clean combustion like what was promised to be. But it is still a big achieveent. I guess they will also shaped the piston head to allow that vortex formation.

the electric valve control system is not new, the Alfa 1.4 multi-air engine uses the same tech. The problem is the local mechanics dont know how to take care of the unit and apparently the unit requires specific maintenance. Alfa/Fiat dont do specific maintenance, hence, these units fails.

I think the Mazda mechanics will have a clear maintenance instruction coming from a Japanese company. I am just scared of knocking on these engines. Mazda stated that they do in cylinder monitoring, how is the sensor withstand the higher pressure force inside the cylinder
 
Jchan11hk said:
Okay, finished reading it, so they added the spark plug to make it a controlled combustion, so it won't have the self-combustion characteristics. That's clever but also it means it wont be a completely clean combustion like what was promised to be. But it is still a big achieveent. I guess they will also shaped the piston head to allow that vortex formation.

the electric valve control system is not new, the Alfa 1.4 multi-air engine uses the same tech. The problem is the local mechanics dont know how to take care of the unit and apparently the unit requires specific maintenance. Alfa/Fiat dont do specific maintenance, hence, these units fails.

I think the Mazda mechanics will have a clear maintenance instruction coming from a Japanese company. I am just scared of knocking on these engines. Mazda stated that they do in cylinder monitoring, how is the sensor withstand the higher pressure force inside the cylinder
Click to expand...

Sorry to correct you on two things:
1. The spark plug in Mazada's HCCI/SCCI engine is just there for cold starts. Once the engine is up to temp and running the self-ignition characteristics will kick in.
2. The Fiat/Alfa multi-air engine is hydraulic not electric. This is the very reason why the oil in these engines is so important. The multiair unit sucks up oil from the sump to use in the hydraulic system. Furthermore, my Alfa with this particular engine has 135k km on the clock and the MA unit has not been replaced.
 
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Okay, thanks for the correction.
I thought Mazda's SCCI will always use the spark plugs to ignite in order to control the combustion timing. But ya, then it won't have a clean and full combustion as promised in the HCCI tech.

Cool man, at I hope your mechanics did use the Selenia Oil instead of the Castol oil that the Jeep dealerships bought in a 210L drums. The failure rate for the MA unit is still high in SA.
 
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