01/25/2010

• Continental's and Schaeffler's development, systems and industrialization expertise is the key to success
• Schaeffler sites start with series production of turbocharger in autumn 2011
• Turbocharger to be installed in a European volume production vehicle

Regensburg, Germany. Next year, the Schaeffler Group will start series production of the new turbocharger for gasoline engines, developed by Continental, the international automotive supplier. "This collaboration is the result of Continental's successful search for a strong partner to complete the final development phase and put the turbocharger into series production. It means we will be profiting from Schaeffler's extensive mechanical expertise", explained Dr. Peter Gutzmer, head of the Engine Systems Business Unit in the Powertrain Division. The plan is to reach an annual production capacity of two million turbochargers by 2014. The new turbocharger, designed to allow fully-automated assembly and consequently offering production quality and cost advantages, will be installed in a European vehicle platform's gasoline engines.

The new Continental turbocharger developed for use in gasoline engines goes into production with Schaeffler Group

Development and systems expertise plus comprehensive mechanical know-how

The collaborative arrangement between the two companies makes Continental responsible for integrating the turbocharger into the vehicle manufacturers' engine systems, and for application development, product engineering, purchasing, sales and quality. Schaeffler will provide support in the final development phase and will assume full responsibility for industrialization. Series production of the newly developed turbocharger is planned for the third quarter of 2011. Schaeffler is to complete all the necessary preparations for industrial production of the turbocharger which will be subjected to high stresses during everyday operation. The turbocharger's 38mm-diameter turbine turns at some 240,000 revolutions per minute, i.e. 4,000 revolutions per second, in the exhaust flow which can reach 1,050 degrees. This demands outstanding mechanical quality and processing standards. The Schaeffler Group is a leading manufacturer of mechanical parts which are subject to high stresses and is highly skilled in forming, hardening and machining such components.

Schaeffler's Lahr site acts as a Center of Excellence, responsible for process development and the transfer of this know-how to other production sites. When designing the assembly lines and production facilities, Schaeffler can call upon the company's highly-efficient special mechanical engineering department. The Group's global positioning will allow subsequent orders for the Continental turbocharger to be met close to customer sites throughout the world.

The turbocharger growth market: smaller, supercharged engines reduce CO₂

According to Dr. Gutzmer "turbocharging gasoline engines is becoming ever more important since it is the only way to achieve the downsizing of engines that is essential to the reduction of fuel consumption". In addition to employing light-weight design, hybrid drives and optimized injection systems, automotive industry development engineers are relying on developing smaller internal combustion engines in order to achieve their ambitious targets of significant reductions in vehicle fuel consumption, and thus of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Small-capacity gasoline engines are supplied with highly compressed air via a turbocharger; this air is forced into the compression chamber and the turbocharger is driven by the exhaust flow from the engine. In this way, significantly greater power can be achieved from engines of considerably smaller cubic capacity and, at the same time, consumption can be reduced. It was strategic and technical considerations that caused Continental to start with development of this small turbocharger first. Market analyses conducted early on led to the conclusion that almost all engine manufacturers were focusing on developing small supercharged gasoline engines and that there were excellent opportunities for growth in this segment in the next few years.

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Fully-automated assembly delivers quality and cost advantages

The turbocharger was developed in the record time of just three years at Continental's two sites in Grünstadt in Rhineland-Palatinate and Regensburg in Bavaria. Continental has used an innovative production method for its turbocharger. All the main components have been designed for fully-automated assembly along a single axis, whereas conventional turbochargers have to be put together in several stages, partly by hand. Fully-automated assembly delivers quality benefits through lower defect rates; it also produces cost benefits and both are important in view of the fact that these turbochargers are to be installed in high-volume model series. Thanks to its modular design, the turbocharger is very largely scalable and can be easily adapted for installation in other engine sizes.