A camless or free-valve piston engine has poppet valves operated by means of electromagnetic, hydraulic, or pneumatic actuators instead of cams. Actuators can be used to both open and close valves, or to open valves closed by springs or other means.
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As a camshaft normally has only one lobe per valve, the valve duration and lift is fixed. The camshaft rotates at half the rate of the crankshaft. Although many modern engines use camshaft phasing, adjusting the lift and valve duration in a working engine is more difficult. Some manufacturers use systems with more than one cam lobe, but this is still a compromise as only a few profiles can be in operation at once. This is not the case with the camless engine, where lift and valve timing can be adjusted freely from valve to valve and from cycle to cycle. It also allows multiple lift events per cycle and, indeed, no events per cycle—switching off the cylinder entirely.
Camless development
Camless engines are not without their problems. Common issues include high fuel consumption, accuracy at high speed, temperature sensitivity, weight and packaging, high noise, high cost, and unsafe operation if there are electrical problems in the vehicle.
Camless valve trains have long been investigated by several companies, including Renault, BMW, Fiat, Valeo, General Motors, Ricardo, Lotus Engineering, Ford, Jiangsu Gongda Power Technologies and Koenigsegg's sister company FreeValve. Camless systems are commercially available, although not yet in engines in production road vehicles. In the spring of 2015 Christian von Koenigsegg told reporters that the technology pursued by his company is "getting ready for fruition", but said nothing specific about the time-table.
In November 2016, Chinese automobile manufacturer Qoros Auto displayed a Qoros 3 hatchback at the 2016 Guangzhou Motor Show showcasing a new Qoros ‘Qamfree’ engine. The engine's Swedish designer FreeValve claims that the 1.6-litre turbocharged engine will produce 230bhp and 320Nm of torque. They also claim that, compared to a similar traditional engine, it offers a 50% reduction in size (including a 50 mm lower height), 30% reduction in weight, 30% improvement in power and torque, 30% improvement in fuel economy, and a 50% reduction in emissions. Christian Koenigsegg claims in a video that the Qamfree engine with the PHEA camless technology is based on an existing Qoros engine that was "...developed in Germany Austria five six years ago...".
Christian Koenigsegg also claims that the PHEA camless technology allows the elimination of the pre-catalytic converter because a PHEA engine is far less polluting when started cold.
Camless engines in marine and power stations
MAN Diesel & Turbo are producing engines which make use of electrohydraulic valve control rather than camshafts, rocker arms and pushrods. As well, many Wärtsilä engines have electronically controlled common-rail systems for fuel injection and valve actuation.
The advantages of the engine the camless system gives are comprehensive:
Camless engines in car
The Swedish company Freevalve AB (formerly Cargine), a sister company to Koenigsegg Automotive AB, are developing a camless system and have successfully implemented the system on an existing SAAB car engine. In April 2016 the Chinese car manufacturer Qoros presented a concept car incorporating Freevalve technology.