 | Adding Value to Customers Through People and Systems
"The key is knowledge."
It's a simple statement but it goes right to the heart of Honeywell Turbo's Core Technologies engineering unit – the global research and development group that drives excellence in product development through world-leading simulation, optimization and analysis.
The words are those of Mark Groskreutz, Director of Core Technologies at Honeywell Turbo Technologies, who heads a team of hundreds of highly talented engineers grappling with the technical challenges presented by balancing margins as small as 0.01 gram millimeters and turbo speeds up to 400,000 rpm.
"Our customers benefit from the experience and expertise of some of the world’s best turbo brains," adds Mark Groskreutz. "We have specialists working in aerodynamics, structures and fatigue, materials, rotordynamics, simulation, vibroacoustics and reliability."
And this is a truly global team, with members collaborating from Honeywell Turbo's R&D centers in the U.S., France, Czech Republic, Japan, China and India and directly serving customers wherever they are based.
Honeywell's multi-million dollar commitment has seen the Core Technologies team double in size over the last two years. The resources at its disposal expand to include the most sophisticated simulation, analysis and testing systems available anywhere in the world.
This has led to a step-change in productivity, thanks particularly to investment in computational grids in each of Honeywell's R&D centers, meaning that the Core Technologies group can process 6,000 tasks each month – compared to 500 just two years ago.
More importantly, the work is completed to even higher standards, thanks to latest generation optimization software which is enabling turbo design definitions to be adapted to specific customer requirements much more quickly than was previously possible.
"We are driving competitive advantage for our customers through the development and application of software tools that are enabling us to run sophisticated simulation, analysis and test programs linked to bearing systems, aerodynamics and materials," says Mark Groskreutz. "This has enabled us to be leaders in key turbo engineering areas such as rotordynamics prediction, auto-optimization for aerodynamics and crack growth prediction."
Engineers at Core Technologies are also embedded within teams developing next generation gasoline boosting systems at Honeywell technical centers in France and the Czech Republic, working on diesel and two-stage programs in India and China and collaborating on the next generation of on-highway VNT™ turbos for commercial vehicles.
One area of unique advantage for customers is the cross fertilization of ideas within the entire Honeywell engineering community. In the case of turbocharging, this means gaining access to advanced aerodynamics associated with Honeywell Aerospace, to new high temperature materials such as nano-composites and to latest generation sensing and control technologies.
The Full Spectrum of Core Engineering
An integral part of Honeywell Turbo's engineering functions, the Core Technologies unit touches every other area of engineering activities. Here is a snapshot of key areas in which its engineers are engaged:
Aerodynamics: The turbo evolution is dominated by the pursuit of optimized aerodynamics, and Honeywell’s Auto Optimization tool stands out for its ability to drive performance and customization for its global customers.
Rotordynamics: Keeping turbos stable in a dynamic environment is very critical. For Honeywell, developing bearing systems by utilizing a computational approach represents the new way forward, replacing the conventional iterative approach of design and test.
Materials and Process: Possessing an extensive data base of materials, and enjoying a leadership position in the field due to the Aerospace synergy, Honeywell engineers are now moving from simply applying existing materials to designing turbo specific ones.
Systems Integration: As boosting technologies move from mostly one-stage systems to the incorporation of multi-stage turbocharging, Honeywell engineers are using advanced simulation and systems analysis tools to deliver tailored solutions.
Predictive Reliability: Fusing cutting-edge experimental techniques with high-power computational models, Honeywell engineers are changing the development process to embed reliability early into the design process.
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