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Growing concerns about the depletion of raw materials as vehicle ownership continues to increase is prompting automakers to look for ways of decreasing the use of platinum-group metals (PGMs) in the exhaust systems. This research has developed a new catalyst with strong robustness against fluctuations in the exhaust gas and excellent nitrogen oxide (NOx) conversion performance. One of the key technologies is a new OSC material that has low surface area (SA) and high OSC performance. We enhanced the pyrochlore- ceria/zirconia (CZ) which has a very small SA. In order to enhance the heat resistance and promote the OSC reaction, we selected and optimized the additive element. This material showed high OSC performance especially in the temperature range of 400 degrees or less. Another key technology is washcoat structure that has high gas diffusivity by making connected pore in the washcoat (New pore forming technology).

New measuring methods of diesel spray characteristics were investigated by using laser Doppler signals, when diesel spray was injected into a high pressure vessel at room temperature(Injection under the high pressure means the simulation of injection atmosphere of diesel engine). We describe two methods of breakup length measurement, and these have great advantage compared with the conventional method using spray photographs. First, spray tip penetration was measured by the delay time of Doppler signals from injection start to spray tip arrival at each measuring point (measuring volume of Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV)), traversing the measuring point along the spray axis center line or offset line of the center line from nozzle hole towards downstream. Spray breakup length was measured as the inflection point of the curve drawing the delay time of Doppler signals versus the measuring points.

The Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD), being a self-emissive display device featuring high luminance and excellent readability, has become widely used for automotive applications. The ability to drive it at 12V and to adjust the luminance with the duty cycle, give the VFD high consideration, especially for the display in the car audio system. The number of display segments for the car audio system has increased to more than 50. Adding new functions to the car audio system will increase the required number of display segments. In the 12V static drive system, the number of display segments determines, and equals, the number of driver integrated circuit (IC) output bits required. An increase in the number of anode terminals, required by the increase in display segments, will result in increases in system cost, assembly complexity, space-related problems, etc. This paper reports on attempts taken to solve these problems.