{"id":160080,"date":"2014-02-09T18:46:15","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T20:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=160080"},"modified":"2015-01-09T19:03:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T21:03:27","slug":"worldwide-competence-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/worldwide-competence-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Worldwide competence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in September 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

\"From

L\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/a> From top left, researchers Andrew Ferrarese, Fernando Yoshino, Eduardo Tomanik. From bottom left, Carlos Roberto Camargo, Samantha Uehara, and Paulo MordenteL\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The Mahle Metal Leve technology center is located in an environmental protection area in the Japi Mountains in the city of Jundia\u00ed, 60 kilometers from the capital of S\u00e3o Paulo. In this facility, engine components such as pistons, rings, sleeves, bearings, air filters and fuel filters are developed and tested in large rooms with glass panels so that visitors and customers can tour the facilities without disturbing the testing and research routines. The center consists of three independent buildings that follow the precepts of sustainable architecture, including a reflecting pool on the roof that serves as thermal insulation, large skylights that allow natural light in and a design that preserves the natural slope of the land. Approximately 300 people work at the site, including technicians, engineers and interns, and more than 200 of these employees are directly involved in research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the second largest Mahle technology center in the world,\u201d says mechanical engineer Ricardo Sim\u00f5es de Abreu, 56, an alumnus of the University of Mogi das Cruzes (UMC) and global vice president of research and development (R&D) of the company established more than 90 years ago in Germany to manufacture alloy engine pistons. The technology center model was established by Abreu in 2005 after he took over global responsibility for the group\u2019s development of metallic components. Each of the seven centers, including four with worldwide competence, has a general manager, product experts and engineers who are responsible for the technologies. \u201cI established a model in which all centers can work with all engine components, but one of them leads the process,\u201d says Abreu, who taught for several years at the Mau\u00e1 Institute of Technology, the Ignatian Educational Foundation (FEI) and UMC before joining Mahle, where he has remained for 17 years.<\/p>\n

\"Architecture

L\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/a> Architecture\u00a0of the technology center integrated\u00a0into the Japi mountain range in Jundia\u00edL\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The main technology center is in Stuttgart, Germany, and is responsible for pistons, pins, camshafts and other components. The Brazilian center is responsible for rings and sleeves for engine cylinders and is being a world reference in flex fuel engines. The Northampton, England center is responsible for engineering services, while the Detroit center is responsible for connecting rods. The two centers in Japan and China serve customers in their respective countries. Approximately 48,000 people work in 100 plants around the world and in the seven R&D centers. In 2012, the Mahle Group had worldwide revenues (net sales) of approximately R$19.7 billion, and its investments in R&D totaled approximately R$930 million (4.7% of net revenue). Mahle Metal Leve had revenues of R$2.2 billion last year and invested R$67 million (3.02% of net sales) in R&D.<\/p>\n

The innovations developed by the Brazilian research center include items ranging from a new generation of filters for use in flex fuel engines to the use of chromium carbonitride (a chemical compound composed of carbon and chromium) as a nanoscale coating for piston rings that results in reduced friction and thus greater part durability, as well as a reduction in fuel burned and carbon dioxide emissions. This innovation will replace the galvanized material currently used for this purpose. \u201cCarbon in the form of graphite has no mechanical resistance, but it has a very important function, which is to reduce friction,\u201d says mechanical engineer Paulo Mordente, 37, who has been at the company for 14 years. He is a materials science researcher and project coordinator. The reduction in friction \u2013 which is between 10% and 20%, according to the researcher \u2013 is obtained by distributing islands of graphite on the order of 5 to 10 nanometers in size throughout the ceramic coating of piston rings. As a result, cars fitted with piston rings with this coating will use 1% less fuel.<\/p>\n

\"Monitoring

L\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/a> Monitoring\u00a0of tests conducted\u00a0in the engine laboratoryL\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The nanotechnology project originated in 2004 within a European consortium formed by companies interested in surface protection coatings and universities such as one in Basel, Switzerland, with government support. \u201cAfter three and a half years, the consortium was terminated, but Mahle decided to continue the research, which resulted in three patent filings and a product expected to enter the market in 2017,\u201d says Mordente, who graduated from the Federal University of Uberl\u00e2ndia (UFU) in Minas Gerais and holds a master\u2019s degree from the Polytechnic School of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (Poli\/USP). The new product will initially be applied to engines of European cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand for engines is greater in Europe and the United States, but that does not mean that innovative components are developed there,\u201d says mechanical engineer Andr\u00e9 Ferrarese, 35, coordinator of the innovation department. He has been with the company since 1999, when he started as an intern. \u201cToday, 70% of diesel engines for passenger cars supplied by Mahle to Europe use a piston ring that was developed here.\u201d It is an oil control ring called X-taper and is able to reduce force and therefore friction without losing the power to seal and scrape. \u201cThus there is a gain in fuel consumption,\u201d says Ferrarese, who graduated and obtained a master\u2019s from Poli\/USP.<\/p>\n

In 2012 alone, the company filed 28 original patents in Brazil, meaning that all of the innovations were generated in Brazil. This figure is nearly double the 16 patents that were filed in 2011. \u201cWe have targets for the number of patents filed, designs turned into products on the market, and scientific articles published,\u201d reports mechatronic engineer Fernando Yoshino, 38, who graduated from Poli\/USP and is responsible for filtration systems product engineering. In just the first half of this year, his team, which is composed of 11 people, filed nine patents in Brazil. The innovations developed by his group are already on the market and include a system to remove water from diesel fuel tank filters because the accumulation of water in the reservoir is a serious problem for injection systems. His team also creates innovations related to flex fuel engines such as a new-generation fuel filter that has a greater capacity for removing impurities and durability that will result in an extension of the service interval.<\/p>\n

\"048-049_ING\"<\/a>Diversified portfolio
\n<\/strong>Mahle began its activities in Brazil in 1975 by manufacturing pistons for the automotive industry and, over time, has purchased other companies, including a competitor, Metal Leve, which also manufactured bearings. Together with Magneti Marelli, it bought Cofap, a company that makes shock absorbers and piston rings. \u201cWith these acquisitions, Mahle diversified its portfolio, adding more parts to its development capability,\u201d says Ferrarese. \u201cIt started as a manufacturer of pistons and transformed itself into an engine component producer.\u201d In June 2008, the technology center in Jundia\u00ed continued the research that was initiated in Santo Amaro, a neighborhood in the southern part of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, and added new activities and research groups. Examples of these groups include the automotive component laboratories located on the second floor and the engine laboratory that occupies the third floor of the building. The 52-member group was assembled by mechanical engineer and manager of experimental test engineering, Carlos Roberto Camargo, age 48. \u201cWhen I came here, there were only technicians, I was the first engineer in the group,\u201d says Camargo, an alumnus of FEI. He recruited the experimental engineering team and reorganized the laboratories.<\/p>\n

Different types of projects are part of the researchers\u2019 daily routines. They are divided into the following areas:\u00a0 product portfolios, where there is a commitment to quickly placing a part on the market at a competitive cost; systems, where the demand is for a systemic solution based on existing products; basic tools, where methods are developed for analysis, simulation, and testing that result in new components; and incubation technology, which handles ideas that are not associated with a specific product at first due to their degree of innovation. \u201cSome concepts or ideas become part of the company\u2019s portfolio only after we are certain about their technical performance and production capacity,\u201d says Ferrarese. The innovation department is responsible for four processes: idea management, intellectual property, image (the technological and technical promotion of a new product), and competitive intelligence.<\/p>\n

\"Components

L\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span>Components laboratory:\u00a0piston testingL\u00c9O RAMOS<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The Brazilian Mahle currently has more than 100 projects under development, of which 70 have some type of government support. One of the projects funded by FAPESP through the Partnership for Technological Innovation (Pite) involves a consortium of companies and universities focusing on biofuel engines (see Pesquisa FAPESP Issue No.196<\/em><\/a>). Volkswagen, Fiat, Renault, Mahle, Petrobras, and Fundi\u00e7\u00e3o Tupy are participating in the study, as are USP, the Federal University of the ABC (UFABC) and the University of Campinas (Unicamp).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of studying the problems related to the use of ethanol in engines emerged during discussions in a tribology group at Poli, to which I belong,\u201d says mechanical engineer Eduardo Tomanik, 55, an R&D technical consultant in the Mahle product technology department and company employee for almost 30 years. Tribology involves the study of phenomena related to friction, wear, and lubrication. Throughout his career, Tomanik has worked on different projects including piston rings that are coated using a technique called PVD (physical vapor deposition), which results in a product with lower friction. In 2004, PVD rings began to be produced in Portugal for the European market and are now being manufactured in Brazil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Innovate products makes Mahle’s Brazilian technology center stand out","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[243],"coauthors":[115],"class_list":["post-160080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-innovation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160080"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=160080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}