My Technology

Overview:

This is the second of a series of articles that highlights the just about unbelievable advances that have occurred up to now 10 years in car technology. It will concentrate on the way it was done. That is such an enormous topic that it is being broken down into a number of sections.

Within the 1990's one had the feeling that there couldn't be any more advances in the technology in cars, growth had reached its zenith. However ever rising stress by governments, the looming scarcity of fuels and different clean air laws have forced the engineers to develop extra efficient cars and engines.

As talked about in the first article, the claims of the producers sound just like the claims of snake oil salesmen, nearly too good to believe.

The most obvious developments:

Some developments are easy to elucidate and have been identified for many years, however have not been used for varied reasons.

• Discount in weight:

With the growing stress to make automobiles safer, their construction needed to be stronger in sure sections and this has precipitated a rise in weight over the years.

These days steels with high strength are being utilized in the principle body of the car. Plastics and composites ( high- strength woven fibers in the matrix of a resin), have made their look on manufacturing cars. Composites are nonetheless very costly and have restricted functions and are principally utilized in racing cars and a few costly unique sport cars.

Aluminum is used increasingly today for the body construction, mostly on the more expensive automobiles. In cease and start site visitors the reduction of weight has the most effect on the economic system of a car.

• Streamlining:

Cautious attention is being paid to cut back aerodynamic drag as far as possible. In the 1930' a Czechoslovakian car maker, Tatra, had a automobile that was designed in a wind tunnel to have a drag co-environment friendly that beats that of any fashionable manufacturing car. A few years ago makes like Citroen in addition to Audi had produced vehicles with low drag co-environment friendly and lately each manufacturer does it also. Thus it is nothing new, however has risen in importance in the previous couple of years.

The impact of aerodynamic drag solely comes into play at greater speeds similar to being reached on the open highway, but is also one of the components that's actively pursued by the manufacturers.

• The reduction of friction losses:

The place-ever possible friction in engines is reduced by the design of the pistons, bearings and varied different methods.

The ancillary tools akin to water pumps, oil pumps, air-con compressors and energy steering are sometimes pushed by electric motors controlled by electronics to work on demand when needed.

Low friction tires are used where different factors as road holding are not deemed to be extra important.

These are all methods by which the financial system of right this moment's cars is improved. Essentially the most dramatic advances however come from adjustments to the engines and transmissions of the automobile. This is the topic of additional articles within the series.

MF