Transmission Suppliers Get Ready for 2007 Engines Web source: http://www.ttnews.com/lmt/Mar06/automatics.asp Automatics Gear Up for 2007 Engines The increasingly sophisticated engines that will meet the 2007 diesel emission regulations also need some assistance from the automatic and automated transmissions. Here is a look at what changes the transmission suppliers have made to match their products with the upcoming engine models. By G.C. Skipper January 2007 engines may be environmentally cleaner, as mandated by the federal government, but medium-duty fleet managers and other end-users could feel an economic impact of those engines in the forms of higher truck costs, increased running costs, decreased performance and - at a time of historic fuel hikes - decreased fuel efficiency. Transmission manufacturers say they can help alleviate some of that economic burden. They have changed some of their products' characteristics in an effort to offset some of the performance changes that are expected to accompany the next generation of low-emission diesel engines to be introduced beginning January, specifically higher heat and slightly lower fuel economy. The latter is expected with the use of ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel which has a slightly lower energy content than current diesel fuel, according to several industry spokesmen. "Strategically we have focused on products that can help end-users with their overall vehicle running costs," said Keith Wright, manager of worldwide product planning and automation for Eaton Corp., Galesburg, Mich. "As the emissions regulations become more stringent, the low-hanging fruit that you could get from the engine alone is gone," said Charles S. Gerson, on-highway powertrain sales manager for the OEM solutions group at Caterpillar in Peoria, Ill. "We learned that it will take more of a systems approach to be able to meet those emission standards." For that reason, engine and transmission integration has become even more critical, thus allowing, "for complete communications between the two," he said. Steve Spurlin, chief engineer for the 3000 and 4000 Series transmissions and applications engineering at Allison Transmissions, Indianapolis, Ind., agreed. "Everybody has to be a lot more in lock step today than we were 15 years ago," Spurlin said. "When either one of us - engine OEM or transmission OEM - changes software calculations, we need to revalidate to make sure everything is still communicating like it's suppose to do." As a transmission manufacturer, Spurlin said, Allison believes there are five elements of the '07 engines that need to be addressed: cooling, launch performance, ambient temperature, engine controls and integration of the transmission with the diesel particulate controls. Since the 2007 engines will bring more heat to the vehicle cooling system, Spurlin said the company has worked with engine and truck manufacturers to plan how to handle changes in the cooling systems as well as deal with the ambient temperature around the transmission, especially if it will be near the particulate traps. "For instance, if the particulate trap is placed too close to the transmission, there may need to be shields, or something like that, employed on the part of the OEMs," he said. The new engines likely will have different performance characteristics, and that makes torque converter matching even more important, Spurlin said. "We are working with engine OEMs to understand what the lug-up performance on the 2007 engines is. There is an SAE standard now, developed along with transmission and engine guys, to validate what that performance is. That gives us the method to mutually agree on what the proper torque converter selections ought to be for a given rating of an engine," he said. The particulate filters on the new engines also will have to be cleaned periodically. This will happen either by normal truck operation or by actively burning the collected deposits. Allison also worked with the engine manufacturers to understand how the active regeneration might affect the transmission's torque curve, Spurlin said. "We need to work with the engine guys to understand, during this active [regeneration], what their engine control strategy really is. What are they doing to the basic torque curve during this active [regeneration] and, again, how does that play with us? We need to understand that specific integration during that event," he said. Eaton Updates Transmission For its part in helping reduce running costs of the 2007 engines, Eaton released a new family of automated transmissions called the UltraShift HV (highway value) Series, said Keith Wright, manager of worldwide product planning and automation at Eaton, Galesburg, Mich. "We're bringing out a product really focused on a particular market segment. We are very much trying to respond to the issue of increased fuel costs and the impact of the '07 regulation." Specifically, said Wright, an independent study of the performance of the new series of transmissions showed a 19% fuel advantage over the traditional torque converter automatic transmission. "On a highway route, Eaton has a 7.5% fuel advantage. Most of these vehicles (using the new transmissions) will function as pickup and delivery vehicles," he said. Company officials had said during a telemarketing press conference that the transmissions could save users more than $1,500 a year compared with a conventional automatic transmission, depending on the application. The estimates were based on fuel costs of $2.85 a gallon and a Class 6 or 7 truck running 30,000 miles a year, said Bill Gross, Eaton's medium-duty product planning manager. The fuel economy tests were conducted on two 4300-model trucks from International Truck and Engine Corp., using a test recognized by the Society of Automotive Engineers and the Technology & Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Associations, Gross said. Company officials also said the transmission could save fleets another $210 in annual maintenance costs because the unit does not require lube or filter changes for 500,000 miles. There are no changes in filter requirements for 500,000 miles, and no scheduled maintenance is required except the usual PM, said Wright. Driver and fleet managers will not notice any marked difference. Gross said most of the fuel economy gains were realized at low speeds. "The design of the UltraShift transmission allows 'lock-up' between the clutch and transmission at approximately 3 miles per hour, as compared to lock-up at approximately 24 miles per hour with a conventional automatic," he said. "Until lock-up is achieved, the truck is wasting power and fuel." On highway operations, Eaton said the Ultrashift HV (for high value) transmission could get up to 7% better fuel economy. The transmission is designed for Classes 6 and 7 trucks with diesels rated between 195 and 260 horsepower and torque up to 660 pound-feet. The transmission is available as an option on International 4300 and 4400 model chassis spec'd with International's DT466 engine rated at 225 hp. Company officials said they were in discussions with other truck manufacturers to offer the engine. Caterpillar's New Entry Caterpillar Inc. entered the medium-duty automatic transmission business last November with the introduction of the CX28, a six-speed transmission that will be matched with the C7 and C9 mid-range engines. "Since we have a complete line of highway engines, we lined up our transmissions to match our engines from top to bottom, from the C-7 to the C-15," said Caterpillar's Gerson. "Our transmissions cover the entire range of horsepower and torque. We started at the bottom with the C-28 that goes behind a C-7 and a C-9 engine (used in pickup and delivery applications, small dump trucks, etc.,) and climbed all the way up to the C-31 that goes behind the C-11, C-13 and the bottom end of the C-15. Those applications include dump trucks, cement mixers, big Cat tractors and anything that is a stop-and-go application," said Gerson. Gerson said that the transmission development did not evolve because of 2007 engine regulations, but came about coincidentally. "The further we got into designing engines for 2007, the more sense it made. When '07 came along, it was just a logical step to see what the ratings were going to be, what kind of characteristics would be required to get the job done." Gerson said drivers "will notice that performance will be enhanced because of the communication between transmission and engine. We have figured out that the ability of supplying an integrated package has a lot of benefits for everybody." The rationale behind the "seamless communication between engine and transmission" is important, said Gerson. "Obviously, the transmission can't make the engine more efficient as far as pollutants are concerned; however, the trade-off that always comes with emission changes is the trade-off between emission performance and vehicle performance. Better engine-transmission communication was one way we could retain the kind of performance people are used to even though we've moved to a cleaner engine. "Also, what owners will notice is that it's one-stop shopping for service. There is a common warranty between transmission and engine. When you take it into a Cat dealer, they handle your whole powertrain," he said. Eaton's Wright said, "One impact of '07 legislation is that OEMs for the first time are being forced to upgrade engines at one time right across the product line. There are enormous engineering constraints in doing this, so we focused on designing a transmission product line that makes it as easy as possible for OEMs as well." Allison's Spurlin noted that although the dialog between the engine, transmission and original equipment manufacturers has been going on for awhile, "everybody still has a lot of work to do in 2006." [FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]G.C. Skipper, a freelance writer, has been covering truck transportation for 20 years.[/FONT]
