UK – Cambridge-based Camcon Automotive Ltd is claiming heavy-duty diesel truck fleets could save millions of pounds in fuel costs and that commercial vehicle OEMs could meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations by adopting its digital engine technology. Featuring the company’s Intelligent Valve Technology (iVT), this replaces the camshaft with electric actuators for full, precise control over the engine’s aspiration or breathing. Combined with innovative software, Camcon Automotive claims its cost-effective concept has the potential to make a step change in powertrain development programmes, dramatically reducing fuel consumption and improving control over harmful emissions, without need for OEMs to invest in electrification.

Neil Butler, Technical Consultant, Camcon Automotive, explained: “All key combustion process parameters have been under digital control for some time now. But breathing has been stuck under the control of increasingly complex, but essentially, mechanical variable valve train systems. iVT is as big a leap forward as the change from carburettors to electronically controlled fuel injection.”