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Over the years, automatic transmissions have been the top priority in the development of the domestic automotive industry, but it is difficult to see the mass production of self-branded automatic transmissions in the market. Many companies have already developed products and conducted long road tests. However, all of them have stuck at the threshold of industrialization.
At present, one company has broken through the “curse†of industrialization of automatic transmissions and is ahead of other competitors. This is China National Heavy Duty Truck.
Recently, Liu Wei, director of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Technology Development Center, revealed to reporters: "China National Heavy Duty Truck AMT (electronically controlled mechanical automatic transmission) technology is already very mature, and the forthcoming new generation of strategic models A7 will standardize AMT In 2009, HOWO also adopted AMT as a standard configuration."
Liu Wei's words indicate that preparations for the industrialization of heavy truck AMT have been completed and production will soon begin. This not only makes the heavy truck people feel proud, the entire automotive industry should be excited. How is ATOM's AMT done, and is its technology mature and its performance? With these questions, the reporter came to China National Heavy Duty Truck and took a closer look.
Choice: AMT is a development trend
In the office of Jinan Sinotruk Technology Center, Liu Wei reported the experience of developing AMT to reporters. Heavy Truck R & D AMT is not a whim, nor is it hurriedly launched, but after careful consideration, as early as in 2005 put forward the AMT project. In the past few years, little is known about the research and development of heavy-duty truck AMT in the industry, and people have no choice but to admire the confidentiality work of CNHTC.
Liu Wei said that in 2005, heavy-duty gas technicians who frequently visited Europe had discovered that 20-30% of the European road tractors used automatic transmissions (most of which were AMT), and that this proportion also showed an upward trend. The heavy-duty people realize that, as people's requirements for driving comfort become higher and higher, automatic transmissions have occupied a considerable proportion in cars. In trucks, automatic transmissions will also be the trend of their drive systems. Europe has already manifested itself and will soon become a focus of development in China. Whoever first mastered the technology of truck automatic transmission will be able to win market opportunities. However, at that time, heavy-duty trucks did not produce their own transmissions, and the cooperation with R&D AMT was inconvenient. Therefore, AMT projects did not formally operate.
At the beginning of 2006, Shouqi and Weichai were formally separated. Heavy truck had to produce its own key assembly. In addition to the engine, the transmission base began to build. Having its own R&D and production base for transmissions, it is possible for Heavy-Duty to independently develop AMT, and it can control AMT projects well. In particular, the China III engine with electronically controlled high pressure common rail system and electronically controlled EGR system was successfully developed and sold in batches, accumulating the technical foundation for the research and development of AMT with the same electronic control technology. Thus, at the end of 2006, Heavy Truck officially launched the AMT project.
In fact, apart from the AMT, the automatic transmission also has various forms such as AT (hydraulic automatic transmission), CVT (continuously variable transmission) and DCT (double clutch automatic transmission). Why does heavy duty steam choose AMT? Liu Wei explained: “The automatic transmissions used in European trucks are basically AMT, with only a few ATs provided by ZF and Allison. From a technical point of view, the AT structure is more complex and the cost is higher; the CVT is subject to The limitation of transmission torque is difficult to apply to trucks based on current technology; DCT has no problem in terms of technology, but it is the latest technology. There is no precedent in the world for trucks adopting DCT; The AMT is not only simple in structure, but also low in cost, and more importantly, existing domestic manual transmission production equipment and technology can be retained and used.†So, comprehensively, AMT is the most reasonable choice for the Chinese truck automatic transmission technology route. From the perspective of current research and development of domestic trucks and heavy-duty transmission companies, AMT is an inevitable choice.
R & D: Learning from foreign design companies
AMT (Automatic Mechanical Transmission) is an abbreviation of Electronically Controlled Mechanical Automatic Transmission System. In layman's terms, an electronic control system (TCU) is installed on the basis of an ordinary manual transmission, and computers are used instead of people to shift gears. The principle of AMT is relatively simple, but the development process is not easy. It is understood that many domestic companies that research and develop AMT have been testing roads for many years and have not yet formed industrialization. There are two difficulties that they have to overcome. One is the development of electronic control systems and the other is the matching of complete vehicles. Because AMT's control software needs to write all possible road conditions, it is necessary to continuously simulate various road conditions during the development process. In response to this hundreds of times the test, twelve test car certainly does not work, so do a lot of test vehicle is the need to ensure the match.
Ni Guixiang, Vice Minister of China National Heavy Duty Truck Enterprise Culture Construction, told reporters: "R & D AMT, China National Heavy Duty Truck took a road of independent innovation for digestion, absorption and innovation."
Original innovation takes a long time to accumulate. Heavy trucks may miss this opportunity. Therefore, "Heavy-gas research and development AMT, choose to stand on the shoulders of giants, and joint development with foreign design companies." Liu Wei said, "It is a joint development, heavy truck has a completely independent intellectual property rights, rather than a simple introduction of technology." The foreign partners provide TCU platform for CNHTC. The technical personnel of CNHTC will modify and improve the program according to the road conditions and the use environment in China.
Despite the cooperation with foreign design companies, heavy-duty steam R & D AMT process is still very difficult. Li Fayou, director of the transmission design institute of the Heavy-duty Technical Center responsible for the AMT project, had a much paler hair than two years ago. He told reporters that during the entire R&D process, the foreign side only sent two or three engineers to guide, and most of the design work was done by more than 10 technicians of CNHTC. In the past two years, they voluntarily worked overtime to find information, simulate various road conditions, and constantly experimented and improved.
Liu Wei pointed out: "The process of joint development with foreign companies is actually a process of mutual learning." The so-called mutual learning, that is, not only the technical personnel of Sinotruck to foreign counterparts to learn technology, foreign partners also learn from heavy gas Some experimental conditions that they had not considered before. For example, China’s trucks are heavily overloaded, and when they do the vehicle timing, they cannot do it in accordance with the approved total quality, but more than double, or even more than double; in addition, the reliability of domestic heavy trucks is not as good as that of European heavy trucks, and they are driven in some poor road conditions. At that time, there may be situations such as flameout, brake failure, etc. This is a key consideration for the match between AMT and the vehicle. In Europe, this is no longer the focus of technical research. "For overseas design companies, the cooperation with Sinotruck to develop AMT can enrich their database of electronic control software, and it will greatly benefit them in developing markets in developing countries like China," said Liu Wei.
In July 2007, CNHTC developed an AMT engineering prototype, followed by a long road test and calibration process. “In the entire R&D process, CNHTC took out more than 50 test vehicles. The cumulative mileage of road test vehicles exceeded 600,000 kilometers and the calibration work was done for more than a year.†Liu Wei said, “In terms of vehicle matching, The heavy-duty trucks with complete vehicles and transmissions and other components have advantages over some independent transmission companies because almost no one vehicle company will try out more than 50 vehicles at a time."
In addition to his own test, the heavy truck also selected some users, real car test AMT. At the beginning, it was difficult for some users to accept because the initial AMT performance was incomplete and costly. As a result, heavy truck had to give the user some compensation. Li Fa also had to solve the various problems in the trial process for the users in a timely manner. The experience of repairing cars on the expressway also occurred from time to time.
Performance: Why Save Fuel
Hard work pays off. "After more than two years of research and development, now the heavy-duty truck AMT technology has been relatively mature, its advantages in addition to improving driving comfort, but also can save fuel, even than the average manual transmission are fuel-efficient." Liu Wei proudly said. Once, they arranged an ordinary manual transmission HOWO car and an identical model AMT HOWO, and traveled 100 kilometers under the same comprehensive road conditions in Jinan. As a result, the AMT model would save about 10% more fuel than a normal manual transmission model.
In people's minds, under the same circumstances, automatic transmissions are more expensive than manual transmissions. Why can heavy-duty AMT be able to save fuel?
Liu Wei explained that the automatic transmissions usually referred to by everyone are mainly referred to as AT. Since AT is operated by hydraulic transmission to shift gears, the energy loss caused by torque converters is inevitable. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the models with ATs consume about 10% more fuel than the same models with manual transmissions. The principle of AMT is different from that of AT. The electric control system is used to control shifting. There is no torque converter. As long as the calibration is good and the best shift timing is grasped, the engine can be kept at an economical speed for as long as possible, which can save fuel.
So why is AMT more fuel efficient than manual transmissions? Liu Wei said: "This AMT is like an old driver with rich driving experience, mastered a variety of driving skills, to ensure that the selected gear must be in the best fuel consumption area, shift gear selection at the best shift timing. Due to the arbitrariness of human operation and the difference in human judgment, it is difficult to ensure the above two points for the manual transmission. Therefore, the AMT can achieve more fuel economy than the manual transmission."
In addition, Liu Wei pointed out that with AMT, trucks can easily cruise at a constant speed. In the case of highways and other good road conditions, start the cruise control, the driver can very easily drive the vehicle, uphill downhill when the addition and subtraction and other operations are handled by the AMT. When using a manual transmission, once the speed is increased or decreased, cruise control will have to be reset.
Planning: Pushing AMT models since 2009
The reporter went to the transmission base in China's heavy truck Zhangqiu Industrial Park. According to the person in charge, this base has produced a total of more than 50,000 transmissions this year, and the scale of production has been formed. This shows that the production of heavy-duty transmissions is already very mature and the self-supply rate is getting higher and higher.
In the transmission base of Heavy Truck, the reporter saw the AMT that will be produced in volume. According to the data, this AMT is named "SMARTSHIFT-AMT Intelligent Shift Manual Transmission". Its mechanical part is a 16-speed transmission, with economic mode, power mode and crawl mode, users can choose for different road conditions. In the case of better road conditions, the economic model can be selected to achieve the best fuel economy; when climbing or at the construction site, creep mode can be used to obtain the maximum torque for smooth climbing; if the user pursues power, Such as speeding, you can choose the power mode; In addition, the AMT has a manual function at the same time, users who like to use the manual gear can switch to the manual mode.
SINOTRUK's staff also provided reporters with an introduction to the new products HOWO A7 and 2009 HOWO, in which AMT was highlighted as a prominent technical highlight. It is understood that HOWO A7 will be launched at the heavy truck business conference in mid-July this year, which means that the preparation for AMT mass production has been completed. In addition to production preparation, training for after-sales service personnel also took place a few months ago.
Liu Wei told reporters: “At present, the AMT of China National Heavy Duty Truck is suitable for tractors and dump trucks. This is a difference. Dump trucks pay attention to ease of operation, and road bikes pay attention to fuel consumption and comfort. AMT for other models and 12-speed AMT are applicable. The products will also be gradually developed and gradually expanded AMT's product line." Next year, 2009 HOWO and new products HOWO A7 will be standard AMT, it seems that China Heavy Duty Truck to promote AMT to come.
Prospects: Domestic Heavy Trucks Enter the Era of Automatic Shifting
Next year, SINOCO will push the AMT model. At the same time, recently, FAW Group's AMT has also been successfully developed, and several vehicles have been delivered to users. In addition, the AMTs of heavy-duty transmission companies such as Fast, Big Tooth, and Reed have been road tested for a long time and will soon be introduced to the market. If all goes well, next year the domestic heavy truck market will see a large number of models equipped with AMT, and the domestic heavy truck automatic transmission will truly realize industrialization. It can even be said that the domestic heavy truck has entered the era of automatic shifting since then.
However, after the product is introduced to the market, whether it can be accepted by consumers or whether it can be widely promoted is a question mark. The first is the price. The user knows that the automatic transmission is easy to use, but the price is definitely higher than the manual transmission. Liu Wei said that the price of heavy duty trucks AMT models is not convenient to disclose, but he said: "With the increase in the cost of AMT, heavy trucks will share with the user, will not transfer this part of the price to the user, so AMT models The selling price will not increase much."
Followed by product reliability, although AMT products before the market, manufacturers have done a lot of tests, but after mass production, product consistency performance is guaranteed, the actual use of working conditions and test conditions are also some differences. Therefore, whether AMT can be quickly promoted, it is not yet possible to draw conclusions, and everything should be tested by the market.
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