Pierburg GmbH based in Neuss (Germany), a subsidiary of technology group Rheinmetall, has received an order worth over €90 million for its new variable valve control system UpValve. Production of the valve trains, which are also manufactured at the automotive supplier's Neuss plant, will start in 2019.
The start-up of series production of the corresponding vehicles will begin in 2020. UpValve will be used by several Chinese automobile brands at the same time, and the new valve control system can achieve fuel savings of up to 5 percent.
The ordered system will be installed in a 4-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine co-designed with the Pierburg engineers at Neuss. These latter were the development partner for the complete valve control system, including actuators and electronic peripherals.
On the basis of its existing UniValve, Pierburg has designed an optimized system called UpValve and integrated it into the newly developed engines. Compared to the previous solution, UpValve has been improved in terms of speed stability, footprint and dynamics. In addition, the system enables the cylinder to be switched off as required, which makes additional fuel savings possible.
