Over the last decade, we’ve seen many car companies downsizing their engines, while adding hybrid units and turbochargers to make powerplants cleaner and more efficient as they grapple with more stringent fuel-economy and emissions regulations.
In an age of diesel emissions scandals, revolutionary engine technology from Britain may offer a viable alternative. Camcon Automotive’s IVA (Intelligent Valve Actuation) system delivers the best of both worlds -- diesel fuel consumption with gasoline engine emissions and performance, according to Camcon.
Today, more than half of Toyota’s huge vehicle line up is electrified in some way (either hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell), while Nissan continues to push forward with its “e-power” (for electrified) program.
In contrast, Mazda still believes that the current internal combustion engine has more life left in it and can be made cleaner and more fuel efficient, as we’ve seen in the firm’s latest Skyactiv technologies.
Meanwhile, half a world away in the U.K., Camcom Automotive, a small start-up technology firm, is proving too that the current form of gasoline-based engines can be significantly improved. Designed at its Leamington Spa plant, a revolutionary digital valvetrain drive system called IVA purports to give gasoline engines the driveability and economy of diesel engines but with the emissions and power of a gasoline engine.
Having been under development for the past seven years, IVA is now being tested on public roads in a Jaguar prototype in the U.K.
This all sound well and good, but what does it have to do with the real world that we live in?
The bottom line, and the reason why Camcon’s Roger Stone and Mark Gostick were in Japan recently, was to introduce this innovative IVA technology to major car manufacturers with the hope that they would want to use it. During a short one-week trip, they had meetings with carmakers including Toyota, Honda and Mazda. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Roger and Mark are the first ones to say that no carmakers have committed to use their technology yet as “it’s still early days.” However, they did confirm that the company has, in collaboration with Jaguar, created a working prototype in the U.K. to test the new technology, and with positive results according to Mark.
According to Stone, the firm’s technical director, IVA allows valve lift, valve timing and duration to be independently and infinitely controllable. This redefines the mechanical link between valve operation and the rotation of the crankshaft that has constituted engine design since the early 20th century.
How significant is IVA? You could say it’s as revolutionary as the switch from flip phones to iPhones. It’s a critical rethink that removes the last remaining analog system from an engine. Simply put, this technology is a power and efficiency boost for use in normal and hybrid vehicles, while reducing CO2 emissions by between 15-20% and fuel consumption by 15%.
With completely flexible valve actuation, there’s high potential for an engine to be set up to cater to a driver’s needs, delivering flexibility at low speed, low-load situations, with very high power when needed.
“IVA allows superb control,” says Stone. “We can achieve full lift by rotating the camshaft through 360 degrees, or achieve any intermediate lift we like by rotating it part of the way and rotating it back again. It’s designed to fit just about any engine.” And while they would not confirm when Japanese carmakers would start implementing this technology, they did confirm that several companies were interested in starting tests with IVA. But no names yet.
Camcon has already acknowledged technical help from JaguarLand Rover. Camcon is working on road tests to evaluate IVA’s durability and record real-world results, but Gostick believes the system has already gone a long way to proving its durability. If employed by suppliers such as Bosch, IVA would take two to three years to reach production, and such application could go a long way to getting Japanese carmakers to sign onto the program too.
