Detroit Diesel is working to meet EPA regulations that call for a reduction in emissions from heavy-duty highway trucks.

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If there is one thing that Detroit Diesel is known for aside from its heavy-duty engines, it is the manufacturer’s commitment to innovation. Faced with new 2007 EPA emissions standards, the company has been deeply involved in a five-year, $1.5 billion development  program
to create an engine that will not only be emissions compliant, but also
provide good fuel economy and horsepower.

New EPA emissions standards apply to model year 2007 heavy-duty highway engines and vehicles. The new regulations call for a reduction in emissions such as nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and particulate matter from heavy-duty highway trucks. But, rather than revamp an existing engine in order to meet EPA’s new regulations, Program Director Jim Gray says it designed an entirely new platform that takes all of the emissions requirements into account.

A Solid Platform
In October 2007 the company unveiled its new heavy-duty diesel engine, the DD15. Detroit Diesel says the engine is intended to meet strict performance standards while providing better fuel economy. The DD15 is a six-cylinder in-line design that displaces 14.8 liters. The engine will meet 2007 EPA emissions as well as NOx reduction standards for 2010.

The engine is part of a larger platform and will eventually be manufactured by Daimler Trucks in Germany, Japan and the United States. The engine will be officially launched in the Freightliner Cascadia model in early 2008, along with the Freightliner Century S/T and Columbia models and the Sterling Set-back A- and B-lines. The platform is intended to replace four distinct engine series now used by Daimler Trucks brands worldwide.

“From a corporate standpoint, we can take an existing engine out of production and make a cost-effective product with one platform, rather than several platforms,” Gray says.

Gray says the company began in 1999 by looking at the European, NAFTA and Asia markets to determine what the emission requirements and customer requirements would be for a new engine.    

About 90 percent of the platform’s parts will be shared on a global basis. A $275 million investment was made at the Redford facility to retool and refurbish the plant where the engine will be manufactured.  

“It’s truly a worldwide engine and it’s being developed with engineering teams from Detroit Diesel, Mercedes-Benz Germany and Mitsubishi Fuso in Japan,” Gray notes.

“The world-class attributes of this new engine platform were obvious during its development. This intercontinental development process involved close cooperation among Daimler engineers around the world.”

All manufactured products at Detroit Diesel are subject to testing and quality control measurements using the company’s new Daimler Corporate Production System. During the development of DD15, 24 units underwent intense endurance testing, running for more than 100,000 operating hours. Some 20 tractor-trailer combinations are undergoing road trials in the United States, Germany and South Africa, five of which have been intentionally overloaded, holding more than 130,000 pounds.    

The company’s parts distribution system and service departments are gearing up for the release by training technicians to diagnose problems when the engine needs to be serviced.  “We are trying to react to customer requests and the emission changes,” Gray says.
    
Customer-Centric
Detroit Diesel is careful to consider what’s important to the end-user when planning for new product. Lifecycle costs in particular are important to its fleet customers, and the company is careful to incorporate that into its design. “It’s the cost of the engine up-front and the cost to operate the unit,” he notes.    

For example, Gray says that building a more fuel-efficient engine saves its drivers money in the long run.

Other features of the engine include a motor control module that interprets driver performance and monitors engine functions such as temperature, oil level, rate of exhaust gas recirculation and the position of the crankshafts and camshafts. Since the module exchanges information with onboard electronics, the driver can easily determine any abnormalities with the engine.