Mazda Motor Corporation celebrates its 90th anniversary this year by taking stock of what kept the company successful for nine decades, its strengths and triumphs. One of these is surely Mazda’s innovative spirit, its willingness to try new things, a corporate environment that has led to some revolutionary technologies over the years.
A Dreamer invents Something, a Genius perfects It
Nothing could be truer of the German Felix Wankel and Mazda’s Kenichi Yamamoto. Wankel, who never got his driver’s license or went to university, dreamed of building an alternative engine with a flat combustion chamber and a thin disc spinning in its middle. Mazda’s Kenichi Yamamoto was so impressed by this engine concept that Mazda bought the patent in 1961. The first “Wankel” engine delivered to Hiroshima, however, vibrated so much it scratched the inner walls of the rotor chamber, a weakness that Yamamoto-San and his engineers would perfect with better sealing and lubrication technologies. In its first production version (the 1967 Cosmo Sport) the Mazda dual-rotor engine had trochoidal housings holding triangular-shaped rotor-discs with the eccentric shaft running through the middle. The space between the rotor edge and the housing walls was used for intake, compression+ ignition and exhaust. It was smooth and high-revving because the pressure it produced turned the eccentric shaft directly, and did not need to be converted to a spinning motion by connecting rods like in a piston engine. This technology would go on to power nearly 2 million Mazda cars including WRC winners, the Mazda 787B that won Le Mans in 1991, and today’s RX-8 RENESIS rotary engine.
The “Eureka” Moment – Hydrogen and the Rotary Engine
When Mazda engineers first tried hydrogen-fuel in their rotary engine in 1990, it must have been a pleasant surprise. Mazda rotary technology has several advantages over piston engines that combust hydrogen. The hydrogen/air mix is more thorough because the mix is stronger and the intake process longer. Backfiring is not a problem either, because the rotary’s intake chamber is separated from the combustion chamber and remains cooler, and there are no intake and exhaust valves to heat up. Over the last 20 years, Mazda has developed its hydrogen rotary engine to production status, and it is currently being leased in Japan and Europe in the RX-8 Hydrogen RE and the Mazda5 Hydrogen RE Hybrid.
Simple and Smart – DISI Petrol + i-Stop
Mazda engineers knew if they could stop a petrol engine with the compression and expansion-stroke pistons in the right position, they could initiate restart by igniting fuel in them. But to do this, fuel had to be injected directly into the cylinder. This was the birth of Mazda’s innovative direct-injection petrol + i-Stop technology, a stop/start system that kills the engine at idle (saving fuel), and positions the pistons using advanced engine control software. When the driver pushes the clutch pedal again, petrol is injected directly into the correct chamber and the engine restarts smoothly in just 0.35 seconds, about twice as fast as conventional systems.
A Materials Revolution – Mazda’s Single Nano-Technology Catalyst and a new DPF
Precious metals are embedded onto the ceramic surface of a catalyst and these react with exhaust gases to “catalyze” their toxins. At high temperatures, the precious metal molecules can clump together, which reduces their ability to clean exhaust gases. To counteract this, large amounts of expensive precious metals must be used. Several years ago, Mazda engineers used single nano-technology to successfully embed precious metal particles individually onto a ceramic base so they do not clump together. 70 percent fewer precious metals are needed to make Mazda’s new catalyst and there is no drop-off in performance. For its diesel engines, Mazda made a particulate filter (DPF) with a ceramic base structure that allows the oxygen molecules embedded in it to release when burning off diesel particulate matter. This improves DPF efficiency, requires less fuel, and reduces the frequency needed for filter regeneration. Both filters are found in Mazda’s current line-up.
Back to the Basics – Weight Saving Technologies
Mazda’s “gram strategy” to lower vehicle weight is one of its most innovative achievements because it’s so simple – a lighter car uses less fuel. To reduce the weight of a component, engineers needed to simulate how it would react under stress, so Mazda wrote new computer software. To add spot welds and weld bonds to new locations of the body shell, new tooling technology was developed. Ultra-high tensile steels for a stronger and lighter body and suspension were produced with advanced casting technologies. Engineers even introduced lighter neodymium magnets for the speakers. By going back to the basics, Mazda became one of the first carmakers to introduce a new generation of cars all of them lighter, stronger, more fuel-efficient and cleaner than their predecessors.
