Eaton hollow head engine valve
Eaton is the leading global supplier of engine valves with total production of more than one million engine valves per day, supplying nearly all vehicle and engine manufacturers worldwide.
Solutions such as hollow valve manufacturing, seat welding, salt bath nitriding, and continuous materials development overcome the issues of increased temperatures, combustion pressures, corrosion and seat wear.
For more than 85 years, Eaton has been designing and developing engine valve technologies for manufacturers that require high quality valves for gasoline, diesel and alternative fuel engines.
Eaton hollow head engine valve
Eaton differentiates itself by using innovative technology to produce engine valves.
Engine downsizing coupled with increased power density requires valves with higher strength and temperature resistance. This challenge can be addressed with high performance materials, special seat and stem coatings, lightweight and hollow valves, which enable internal cooling.
Eaton hollow valves ensure engine knocking reduction enabling fuel economy, catalitic converter efficiency and specific power increase
Improved wear resistance
Proven reliability for increased power
Crutonite (EMS 200) is Eaton's Automotive News PACE Award-winning, proprietary high-temperature exhaust valve alloy with reduced nickel content. It can be used in internal combustion exhaust valves or spark ignition intake or exhaust valves.
Key features and benefits:
Today's engines deliver higher specific power than ever before. This power increase leads to higher exhaust gas temperatures. Several factors lead to this temperature increase:
Solid valves simply cannot perform under these conditions, so hollow valves are needed. And while hollow valves initially cost more than solid valves, the alternative materials like TiAl, titanium, or ceramics used for solid valves are more expensive than any hollow valve.
Hollow valves transfer more heat through the stem than solid valves. Martensitic stem material is a better conductor than austenitic head material. Valves with more stem material and less head material transfer heat better. However, better heat transfer may also cause stem seal damage if the upper portion of stem is not in contact with the water jacket of the cylinder head.
|
Tube to Tip |
Tube to Solid TTS |
Top of Head |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
drilled stem & head |
drilled head |
w/plug & laser weld |
w/ball & stellite weld |
|
Advantages |
No need for plug and laser welding No weld in combustion chamber
|
No need for plug and laser welding No weld in combustion chamber
|
Design freedom with sodium cavity length (better cooling effect) Friction welding position independent from sodium cavity end Reduced amount of austenitic/Ni-based material and optimized costs |
Design freedom with sodium cavity length (better cooling effect) Friction welding position independent from sodium cavity end Reduced amount of austenitic/Ni-based material and optimized costs |
Disadvantages |
Good thermal exchange force tube to arrive closer to guide cold end side using more Austenitic/Ni-based material (high cost) Friction welding operation issues, even bigger than with standard friction welding Upper tube to be drilled Many quality problems and failures from field in the past |
Good thermal exchange forcing tube to arrive closer to guide cold end side using more Austenitic/Ni-based material (high cost) Friction welding operation issues
|
Welded area in combustion chamber Sodium in contact with plug (welded area) Longer drilling length in stems
|
Sphere plug, fitting operation and stellite welding Weld presence in combustion chamber
|