So while the future for the internal combustion engine not looking too bright in the wake of quantum leaps electric technology has takem, the ICE manufacturers are not resting on their laurels. We have all seen what advancements engine tech has made in recent years, with small turbo engines producing power and torque equivalent to their V6 counterparts, efficiency going up and emissions going down perennially. As a more advanced version of engine tech, available only in a select few models, we have the cylinder deactivation tech, which shuts down a certain number of cylinders while coasting to save fuel.
But what we just stumbled upon is the most unreal, most cutting edge wizardry we have ever witnessed in the world of combustion engines. Honda seems to have patented what they call ‘Variable Displacement’ system for an engine. What this means is, the new technology can reduce the displacement of a specific cylinder to cut down power, emissions or whatever the need of the hour may be. Only to explain, your single cylinder 250cc engine can function as a 200cc, 150cc, 130cc, 100cc or 50cc based on what the situation demands. Ok, we cannot be sure about the specifics of the tech, but the idea is to reduce or increase the displacement of the engine on the fly.
The Japanese carmaker has been working on this tech, meant to adjust the stroke of a piston in a cylinder for some time. Finally, the design has been unveiled in a patent filed by Honda in the Japanese patent office. The new technology can have huge implications on what an engine can achieve in the real world. Cylinder deactivation system can only cut off a specific cylinder restricting the flexibility of the engine – for example a 1.2 lire four cylinder engine will can have only four options 300cc, 600cc, 900cc and 1200cc. With the new tech, the same engine would be able to get up to 15 variations in displacement. The adaptability of the engine to various driving requirements would shoot through the roof. Using the new tech, an engine could compromise power substantially to offer great fuel efficiency, or quite literally ‘pump all cylinders’ for maximum output.
The images in the patent illustrate how the technology would work for various engine configurations including two, three-cyl and V6 engines. The Japanese carmaker allegedly filed a patent for the tech back in 2014, and now has the rights to it.
Check out the images of the patent below, and let us know if you could decipher something substantial from those drawings which we might have missed
Source: autoguide