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The use of waste heat for automobile engine that applied Rankine cycle from the viewpoint of exergy (available energy) was researched. In order to recover heat to high quality energy, a heat-management engine whose exhaust port was replaced with an innovative evaporation device was developed. With this engine, high temperature and high pressure steam (400 degree C, 8MPa) could be generated from a large amount of the exhaust loss. In addition, high temperature water (189 degree C) was obtained from cooling loss. Consequently, the system that recovered more exergy from waste heat was established. To verify the system, the Rankine cycle system was installed in a hybrid vehicle and the automatic control system to change steam temperature and pressure according to the load variation was constructed. As the result of vehicle testing, thermal efficiency was increased from 28.9% to 32.7% (by 13.2% increase) at 100km/h constant vehicle speed.

A new heat-resistant magnesium alloy (hereafter referred to as “ACM522”) for die-casting based on the Mg-Al-Ca-RE system has been developed by Honda R&D Co. In the 150°C temperature range, the ACM522 alloy yields high creep resistant characteristics which are superior to the conventional AE42 heat-resistant magnesium alloy, and it also exhibits an excellent resistance to both heat and corrosion which can be favorably compared with the A384 general-purpose aluminum alloy. The use of magnesium for oil pans has raised a number of issues such as reduced axial force in the bolted areas and, until now, oil pans made of magnesium had not reached the stage of commercial viability for mass-produced automobiles. The authors applied the ACM522 alloy to develop light-weight oil pans which are 35% lighter than conventional aluminum oil pans.

The all-aluminum platform composed of applied aluminum honeycomb sandwiches dash and floor-panels and an applied extrusions framework was studied in order to obtain the weight-reduced convertible with high rigidity. The extrusions and dimensions of the honeycomb sandwiches and their mechanical properties as well as experimental results on jointed structural elements used for the platform are shown. The platform completed by the production process described (where aluminum materials occupy above 95%) achieves the required precision and weighs only 117kg.