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An all-nylon intercooler for automotive applications has been shown to be possible. The heat rejecting element (cooling core) can be made employing the latest developments in plastic tubing, and the joining of the tanks to the tubes can be accomplished by advanced plastic welding techniques. The resultant part is similar in performance and environmentally robust compared to the aluminum parts made today. This paper will discuss assembly techniques and thermal performance, including test data and results. Increasing the robustness of the design is the recent development of extrusion grade polyphthalamide plastic tubing. The feasibility of production has been enhanced by the commercialization of laser welding of plastics using diode lasers.

The effects of engine noise in plastic manifolds has been a subject of study in the automotive Industry. Several SAE papers have been published on the subject. Most testing described requires access to engine dynamometers and other elaborate equipment. As part of a general study of plastic intake manifold noise characteristics, this study was undertaken to develop a synthesis bench for enabling low cost noise testing of plastic induction systems including plastic manifolds. Computer simulation of engine intake noise was used as part of a correlation between the plastic manifold synthesis bench and actual engine measurements. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis provided analogous results between the predicted theoretical and two measured signals with a fundamental frequency at approximately 80 Hz. Qualitative and statistical comparisons of the time domain signals also proved equally favourable. Recommendations are included for further development of this approach.

Since the large scale production of plastic throttle bodies in 1994 there have been a number of further introducions. However the universal adaptation of plastic for the throttle body has not yet occurred. This paper will describe design approaches and processing solutions to facilitate low cost precision manufacturing with test results of actual parts made by these approaches. Introductions: 1994 U.K. 4 cylinder engine, cable operation 1998 Germany 4 cylinder engine, cable operation 1999 U.S. 4 cylinder engine cable operation

The Automotive market for designing and manufacturing of plastic intake manifolds in 1994 was kick started by the first large scale lost core part in N. America, the Dodge Neon. Because of the launch timeframe and the novelty of the technology in N. America this was based upon a lost core cell installed in the Siemens Windsor plant, and built as a “turn key” operation from a European injection molding machine supplier. Deliveries from that cell were over 200,000 parts by the end of 1994. Further developments of the plastic manifolds have resulted in growth to a projected annual of 2,000,000 deliveries in 2001 from the same “home base” plant. This spectacular growth has fueled a rapid development of design and manufacturing processes, cell design, in lost core with parallel developments in shell designs and processing. This paper discusses the growth of the lost core design / development activities and references some of the shell parallels.

Intake systems for automotive use have been progressively converted to lighter weight materials over the past decade or so. Meeting all of the operational requirements for an intake system is a “given”, as well as meeting those additional requirements associated with conditions which are considered to be abnormal or undesired. As is frequently the case, the very abnormality of the undesired conditions (“e.g. backfires”) is accompanied by a lack of published data. In attempting to collect data for “intake backfires” one encounters the test complications associated with running pyrotechnic events in an industrial environment. This paper discusses an approach by Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, supported by Siemens automotive,to develop a non pyrotechnic test that could be used to authenticate simulations and steady state tests.