At its Hagerstown, Maryland assembly plant in the USA, Volvo Trucks North America has unveiled its new model 2017 Volvo engines, including improvements to its D11 and D13 engines as well as its new Volvo D13 engine with turbo compounding.
The enhancements to its already most fuel-efficient engines have taken fuel economy to a new level, according to Volvo.
The new and improved engines will deliver between 2.2 per cent and 6.5 per cent better fuel efficiency in comparison to its previous generation (2014 models).
“Volvo’s 2017 lineup of engines is the most fuel-efficient we’ve ever offered in North America,” said Goran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks North America.
The new D11 engine provides a 2.2 per cent fuel economy improvement versus the 2014 model thanks to a variety of new enhancements such as a new common-rail fuel system, a new wave piston that forces oxygen and fuel to mix together to burn cleaner, a two-piece valve cover and a camshaft that reduces weight by 12 kg.
The new wave piston, that was named for its unique grooves that cause the oxygen and fuel to mix, turned a lot of heads during its initial testing, said Wade Long, director of product marketing for Volvo North America.
“This new wave piston helps increase our compression ratio on our D13 engine from 16:1 to 17:1…and the higher the compression, the better the fuel efficiency,” he said. “The bumps in there…what that is doing is forcing the oxygen and fuel to mix together and burn more efficiency and it’s burning so efficiently that when we were testing these the engineers thought that the monitoring equipment was faulty, because it wasn’t registering soot, then they found out there’s nothing wrong with the equipment, it was just burning that clean.”
Long said that the new common-rail fuel system not only improves fuel efficiency, but driver productivity.
“We’re very excited about this because what we discovered is how quiet these engines are,” he said. “I think the drivers are going to appreciate these new engines. We are bringing not only fuel efficiency, but driver productivity to the customers.”
Long added that the new D11 offers up to 425 horsepower and 2110Nm. of torque, an increase of 20 horsepower.
Production for the new D11 engine will begin in January 2017.
The improved D13 engine now provides a 2.5 per cent fuel economy improvement over its predecessor, thanks to the same common-rail fuel system, wave piston and camshaft as the 2017 D11. Volvo said it added 135Nm. of torque to the 455 horsepower, increasing it to 2508 Nm. Production for this D13 begins October 2016.
The most interesting development was surely the new D13 with turbo compounding, which they claim provides a 6.5 per cent fuel efficiency improvement over the 2014 D13 engine.
Turbo compounding recovers waste exhaust heat, coverts it to useable energy and transfers it back into the engine in the form of 50 more horsepower. Turbo compounding will give a per cent fuel efficiency increase over the 2017 D13 and Long said that it will also allow fleets to cruise one gear higher.
“Turbo compounding is better for highway applications and cruising speeds,” said Long. “So we will be targeting that for our customers.” Production for the D13 with turbo compounding is set to start in mid-2017.
In addition, Volvo revealed its new one-box exhaust after treatment system (EATS) that combines the diesel particulate filer (DPF) with the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and diesel exhaust fluid doser into one single unit.
The new design improves efficiency and is 7.7 kg lighter than the two-box unit. It also provides customers with additional frame rail space.
