Navistar International Corp., St. Louis, Mo., has contracted metalcaster Cifunsa, Saltillo, Mexico, to produce compacted graphite iron (CGI) engine cylinder blocks for its new MaxxForce 7 diesel engines.
Cifunsa began production on the CGI blocks for the 6.4 litre V8 diesel engine in January. The company has been working with CGI since 1993, when it began employing SinterCast process control technology, but the Navistar MaxxForce 7 is the metalcaster’s first CGI casting to begin mass production.
The CGI block reportedly resulted in a weight reduction over Navistar’s previous generation 6.4 liter V8 engine without sacrificing strength and stiffness.
“Navistar’s decision to specify CGI for the MaxxForce 7 cylinder block reinforces the trend toward CGI for the next generation of high performance and environmentally efficient engines,” said Alberto Piñones, Cifunsa’s chief executive officer. “We have seen a continuous increase in the demand for new CGI engine programs, and we regard CGI as one of Cifunsa’s main growth areas in the near future.”
Cifunsa is a member of the Grupo Industrial Saltillo. It maintains four casting facilities and has an installed capacity of 475,000 metric tons per year. The company supplies iron castings to North American OEMs like Caterpillar, Chrysler, Detroit Diesel, Ford, General Motors, John Deere, Navistar, Nissan and Volkswagen.
