Camcon Intelligent Valve Technology - a Powerful Tool for Combustion Development

摘要

Camcon's Intelligent Valve Technology (iVT) provides a full authority, fully flexible, electromagnetic poppet valve actuation system that includes fast feedback control of valve position throughout the valve event. It also offers unrivalled levels of independent and infinitely variable control over valve timing, period, lift and even lift curve shape. Until recently, work on this technology has focussed on multi-cylinder applications with the ultimate objective of volume production - this work is continuing and has been described elsewhere. However, the possibilities for using the technology purely as an R & D tool for combustion research, cam profile optimisation and more fundamental studies based on single cylinder research engines have now become apparent. A standardised, "Generic" actuator has been developed, sized to provide an excess of available torque and thus the capability to deliver extreme events. This has made it possible to produce iVT single cylinder conversion kits readily adaptable to a wide range of cylinder head geometries. A set of generic actuators can be paired with a simple, custom designed, adaptor housing to mate the actuators to the client specific cylinder head. This approach then facilitates dramatic improvements in single cylinder research productivity - not only allowing work that would normally take weeks, with multiple cylinder head rebuilds, to be completed within a couple of days but also improving data quality. The quality improvements arise from the fact that friction levels are undisturbed by rebuilds, a-b-a-b testing becomes a trivial matter rather than a time consuming chore. Furthermore, the possibility of anything else changing between tests and casting doubt upon any results is eliminated - the valve train test variables lift, timing, period, event shape, etc. can be adjusted without even stopping the engine! In fact, it is possible to switch the valve train from test condition "A" to condition "B" over the period from one cycle to the next!