Overview:
This is the second of a series of articles that highlights the roughly thinkable, advances that have occurred in the past 10 years in automobile technology. It will focus on how it was done. This is such a vast field that it is being broken down into any sections.
In the 1990's one had the feeling that there could not be any more advances in the technology in automobiles, amelioration had reached its zenith. However ever expanding pressure by governments, the looming scarcity of fuels and other clean air legislation have forced the engineers to produce more effective cars and engines.
As mentioned in the first article, the claims of the manufacturers sound like the claims of snake oil salesmen, roughly too good to believe.
The most safe bet developments:
Some developments are simple to explain and have been known for many years, but have not been used for various reasons.
• discount in weight:
With the expanding pressure to make automobiles safer, their structure had to be stronger in safe bet sections and this has caused an growth in weight over the years.
These days steels with high vigor are being used in the main body of the car. Plastics and composites ( high- vigor woven fibers in the matrix of a resin), have made their appearance on production cars. Composites are However very costly and have dinky applications and are mostly used in racing cars and some costly exotic sport cars.
Aluminum is used more and more these days for the body structure, mostly on the more pricey automobiles. In stop and start traffic the discount of weight has the most ensue on the cheaper of a car.
• Streamlining:
Careful attentiveness is being paid to cut aerodynamic drag as far as possible. In the 1930' a Czechoslovakian car maker, Tatra, had a car that was designed in a wind tunnel to have a drag co-efficient that beats that of any modern production car. Many years ago makes like Citroen as well as Audi had produced cars with low drag co-efficient and lately every constructor does it also. Thus it is nothing new, but has risen in point in the last few years.
The ensue of aerodynamic drag only comes into play at higher speeds such as being reached on the open road, but is also one of the factors that is actively pursued by the manufacturers.
• The discount of conflict losses:
Where-ever inherent conflict in engines is reduced by the produce of the pistons, bearings and various other methods.
The ancillary tool such as water pumps, oil pumps, air conditioning compressors and power steering are often driven by electric motors controlled by electronics to work on demand when needed.
Low conflict tires are used where other factors as road keeping are not deemed to be more important.
These are all ways in which the cheaper of today's automobiles is improved. The most dramatic advances However come from changes to the engines and transmissions of the automobile. This is the field of additional articles in the series.
The remarkable Advances in Automobile Technology: How It Was Done