Emissions limits are getting lower all the time, particularly for diesel engines. In order to satisfy not only today's stringent standards, but also the requirements of tomorrow, manufacturers are now having to develop after-treatment systems. An expert team from IndustrieHansa is involved in just such a project at Heinrich Gillet GmbH in Edenkoben, Germany.

In a bid to combat pollution and climate change, Europe aims to reduce its emissions by continually tightening emissions standards for gasoline and diesel engines. The current legal limits are set out in Euro standards 4 and 5. Similar requirements are imposed by the environmental authorities in the U.S. and Japan, with similar objectives. These standards apply not only to the automotive industry, but also to the manufacturers of the non-road engines found in construction machinery and mobile industrial equipment.

This calls for the expertise of companies like Heinrich Gillet GmbH in Edenkoben. It is here that U.S. corporation Tenneco Automotive focuses its European activities in exhaust systems for the OEM market. The further reduction of emissions ranks high on the list of development priorities. Exhaust after-treatment systems designed by Tenneco Automotive Gillet eliminate particulates and reduce NOx emissions. As a system partner, the company works closely with customers and selected component suppliers to develop and manufacture exhaust after-treatment systems.

Among these customers is one of the world's leading manufacturers of construction and mining machinery, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines. The task given to Tenneco Automotive Gillet is to develop and manufacture diesel after-treatment systems for engines destined for the European market, which must satisfy European emissions standards. These engines are used in trucks, ships, boats, construction and mining machinery, and many other applications.

To see this ambitious project through to a successful conclusion, Tenneco Automotive Gillet in Edenkoben is drawing on external design expertise to complement its own resources and capacities. This expertise is provided by a design team from IndustrieHansa's Mannheim office. "Basically, our job is to develop a modular concept for exhaust after-treatment systems in order to cover the vast number of engine variants on the market. It's not the complexity of the individual parts that poses the difficulty, but the potential number of variants. In order to satisfy the remit within the bounds of production and cost considerations, we are using the fully parameterized CAD system Pro/ENGINEER," explains project manager Horst Kramny.