Adopt regulation, Daf urges
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HAD Daf's manager of engine testing, Ed Sluyter, been at the I Mach E seminar I feel sure that one aspect of fuel efficiency, diesel engine exhaust emissions, would have been discussed more fully. Mr Sluyter recently told me of his concern of how long it was taking EEC governments to adopt the ECE regulation 49 on emissions.
It is unusual to find any manufacturer encouraging more legislation, so why Daf? Ed Sluyter explained that if ECE 49 does not soon become the European standard, the recently introduced new American federal standard may effectively take its place. He is certainly keen to avoid that and is sure that other manufacturers' engineers feel the same way, It is not simply that the US standard is more stringent, but that very heavy investment is required for the specialised equipment that is needed to test engines to it, This is chiefly because that latest US stan dard requires total exhaust emissions to be measured under transient load and speed conditions during a 20 m mute cycle. Therefore the engine imamometer and its control used fo r the test has to be of unusually hee ivy-duty design. Mr Sluyter estima. tes that one suitable test cell would cost $4 or 5 million.
An engine n nanufacturer of Daf's size, currently I )uilding around 80 engines a day, cz mnot justify that cost for a single ce II, so Daf engines exported to the I LISA are currently being tested t, o the new federal standard at R icardo in Shoreham. The exhaust )mission test to the RE standard involves collecting gases during ' 13 steady state, load and speed col nditions and can be conducted on a conventional dynemometer. Thoi ugh the results from an ECE test c orrelate closely with those from a fe deral test of the same engine, the U: 3 authorities will not accept them fol r homologation.