Mazda making a gas motor more efficient than a hybrid

A new motor that gets 70 miles per gallon is being tested by Mazda. The Ford Motor Company had a comparable announcement with plans for a 45 mpg engine within the Focus. Mazda Motors is designing an ultra-efficient internal combustion engine and not a hybrid at all. The principles at work are fairly basic, however the engineering is anything however.

An engine form Mazda better than even hybrids

There has been buzz over a prototype engine Mazda is testing, as outlined by CNN. The point of the engine is to get about 70 miles per gallon. It is fairly close to that goal too. Having a low fuel consumption than that is something everybody wants. It needs to be decently priced though. There will be two technologies used by the motor. Variable valve timing and direct fuel injection are these. Fuel is injected right to the piston chamber instead of through a fuel injector on top of the block in direct injection which allows ignition to be more precise. Normally, there would be mechanically set and unvarying vale operation when variable valve timing makes it so there is a more efficient rhythm in the automated computer. The technology is fairly cutting edge, but the idea is as basic at it gets.

Ideas are simple

The 45 mpg Focus is using a basic science. This is how the Mazda motor is made. Involved are two important principles. Involved are mechanical efficiency and mechanical advantage. Mechanical efficiency is easy. It is, in order to perform, the energy expended in a ratio needed. The amount of force produced from a unit of energy from a machine is what mechanical advantage is. The fuel efficiency in an engine could be better the better the mechanical advantage, or the power extracted from a unit of fuel, is.

The real thing

If an engine can put gas within the right place at the right time, there can be more efficiency. This means more force could be created than traditional fuel injection creates. Efficiency also does better when there are things like turbocharged smaller engines. The technology involved with hybrid cars is amazing. It is a fairly new technology still though. The traditional combustion engine is not a dead or dying technology, and it can be interesting to see what can still be done with it.

Citations

CNN

money.cnn.com/2010/11/02/autos/gas_engine_improvements/index.htm

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_advantage

Wikipedia

wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_efficiency