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Enhancing Performance and Comfort
Röchling Automotive's award-winning solution transports the air into the engine after it has been compressed by the turbocharger and cooled down by the charge air cooler. The turbocharged air duct weighs 1.4 kg less than its predecessor. This is partly the result of a reduced number of parts, for example due to the omission of several rubber hoses and metal clamps. Thanks to the more compact design, it was possible to reduce the packaging space in the engine compartment. Also, vibrations or movements of the air duct are now absorbed by the whole component instead of this happening at certain specified positions only, so it was also possible to reduce the distance to other parts. In addition, the quality improves significantly because the risk of leakage at the connections virtually no longer exists as the number of connections has been reduced considerably. Since the air duct is able to decouple engine movements from the intercooler by itself, there was no need to design bellows for this solution.Here's Dr. Ing. Fabrizio Chini, who is responsible for the engine air intake product line at Röchling Automotive: "This design reduces pressure losses and the turbine work necessary at high engine loads, and this in turn saves energy for the pumping work done inside the turbocharger while maintaining the same boost pressure at the air-intake valves. Additionally, we rearranged the acoustic properties in a positive way."