Orbital deals in with Delphi

ORBITAL Engine Corp has turned a profit for the first time since the late 1980s.

The small, yet significant pool of black ink on the company ledger appeared at the end of the first half of the financial year 1999/2000 and the projection by the company is for the effective break-even amount to carry through to the end of June.

The money has been generated by licence agreements with marine, automotive, motorcycle and recreational companies keen to use Orbital's patented air-assisted direct injection technology. This can be used by two or four-stroke petrol engines and offers cleaner combustion and lower fuel consumption.

The latest technology giant to sign up with orbital is Delphi Automotive Systems which will jointly develop a new combined fuel injector and spark plug suitable for direct injection petrol engines.

The technology is aimed at cutting emissions and increasing fuel efficiency. It should be able to be bolted directly onto existing technology four-stroke engines.

The first vehicles to carry this technology are expected on sale in Europe within the next few years and could be imported into Australia. Before then it is possible the Di-tech two-stroke direct injection system developed by Orbital will be sold in Australia powering Aprilia scooters. The first Di-tech scooters go on sale in Europe later this year.

According to Dr Jean Botti, director of Delphi Energy & Chassis Systems' Customer Solution Center, Orbital's technology should "produce significant efficiency improvements while requiring only minor changes to the engines on the road today".

Orbital CEO Mr Kim Schlunke said: "The spark plug injector has been developed by Orbital and will now be refined for commercial application in conjunction with Delphi.

"It is an extension to our core direct fuel-injection activities and will leverage off the supply infrastructure we have already put in place through our joint-venture with Siemens Automotive, Synerject. This agreement is an acknowledgement of the technology's outstanding commercial potential." Synerject is a 50/50 joint-venture established by OEC and Siemens Automotive to develop and distribute integrated fuel systems incorporating Orbital's air-assisted direct fuel-injection technology.

Delphi will design and develop the electrical and spark plug features along with component integration while Orbital is to design and develop the air injector and combustion system.

The direct injection fuel system requires only one point of access to the combustion chamber for both fuel and spark. This is a key advantage since four valve cylinder heads on three and four-cylinder engines are rather crowded areas.

The technology can be used with six and V8 cylinder engines, but these are usually less blighted by cramped cylinder head configurations. Orbital is now focussed on developing direct in-cylinder fuel-injection and lean-burn systems for enhanced fuel economy and lower emissions.