Honeywell Turbo Technologies

History

John Clifford "Cliff" Garrett founded the Aircraft Tool and Supply Company in a one-room office in Los Angeles in 1936. In 1938 the company changed its name to Garrett Corporation, consolidating several companies into one with three divisions. The company produced aircraft turbochargers for the war effort in World War II, as well as avionics, environmental controls and other products.

Garrett Corporation (now part of Honeywell) manufactured its first turbochargers for ground vehicles in the 1950s, when it delivered 5,000 T-15 turbochargers for the Caterpillar company and formed AiResearch Industrial Division. The industrial division produced turbochargers for construction machinery, railroad locomotives, tractors, ships, powerplants and oil pipeline pumping stations. In the 1950s, the city of Los Angeles and other municipalities started using turbochargers in their sewage purification operations. By 1952, 20,000 turbocharged engines were in use in the US.

The T11 automotive turbocharger developed in 1960 expanded turbos to commercial vehicles such as the heavy trucks produced by Mack Trucks, Volvo and Scania. The first turbocharged passenger cars were the Chevrolet Corvair Monza and the Oldsmobile Jetfire in 1962/1963. In the 1960s turbochargers were used in race-cars and sports cars, gaining an association with racing culture and auto-enthusiasts. Company founder Cliff Garrett’s death in 1963 was followed by a hostile takeover threat by Curtiss-Wright Corporation. To avoid this, Garrett Corporation merged with Signal Oil and Gas Company in 1964. The combined company adopted the name The Signal Companies in 1968 before merging with Allied Corporation to become Allied-Signal Inc.

The oil crisis of the 1970s made federal regulators put pressure on car manufacturers to reduce exhaust emissions. By 1977 manufacturers introduced turbocharged cars in the US and Europe like the Buick Regal and LeSabre sports coupe as well as European cars by Volvo, Saab, Peugeot and Mercedes. In 1978 there were only eight turbocharged car models and seven used Garrett turbochargers. Garrett formed the automotive group in 1980 and by the mid-1980s there were over 100 turbocharged models. Turbochargers became commonplace by the 1990s.

In 1994, Allied-Signal acquired the Lycoming Turbine Engine Division of Textron followed by the sale of the Garrett Aviation Division to General Electric three years later. In 1999, it merged with Honeywell International Inc. and adopted Honeywell as the company name. In 2011, Honeywell sold its automotive Consumer Products Group to Rank Group, a New Zealand private investment firm, for $950 million. This included brands like Framfilters, Prestone antifreeze and Autolite spark plugs.

In the 2000s Honeywell’s turbochargers were installed in the engines of the Chevrolet Sonic, Mercedes S 350, Volkswagen Polo, BMW X6 ActiveHybrid, Ford F-350, Volkswagen Golf and Jaguar XF among others. In 2010 the company developed 15 new technologies for 100 new engines, including the world’s first use of ball bearing technology in a mainstream light vehicle diesel engine. Honeywell has developed the world’s smallest turbo for the Tata Nano as well as for the 100-liter engine of the Caterpillar mining truck.

Business

Honeywell Turbo Technologies reported $3.2 billion in revenue in 2011 with a $500 million growth in the Honeywell Transportation Systems division, which Honeywell attributes largely to growth in turbocharger sales. Almost half of the Transportation Systems group’s sales are in Europe, where 50 percent of vehicles are turbo diesel and 27 percent are gasoline boosted.

Automobiles manufactured in the US have the lowest rate of turbocharger installations among industrialized nations. Honeywell projects the number of passenger vehicles with turbocharged engines in the US to double to 23 percent by 2016 and rise to 80 percent by 2025. Honeywell projects 30% of its turbocharger growth will come from gasoline engines. So long as oil prices don’t stress the economy, Honeywell believes increasing oil prices, tighter government emission targets and public priorities on fuel efficiency generally contribute to revenue growth for Honeywell.

Political view

Honeywell is a supporter of an initiative for technology-neutral government subsidies that use the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) irrespective of type of technologies. They believe technology-agnostic policies would support innovation and avoid a dynamic where the government makes choices for car technologies on behalf of consumers and car manufacturers. Former Transportation and Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta and the U.S. Coalition for Advanced Diesel Cars also support this approach.

Turbo racing

The Garrett brand competes in numerous motorsport series and supports sports car racing, drag racing, rally racing, and open-wheel racing. Racing vehicles using a Garrett turbo include:

Technologies and products

Rotary Electric Actuator (REA) Electric actuation, compared to pneumatic actuation, provides a faster and more responsive control for diesel VNT™ turbos and gasoline wastegate turbos in both passenger and commercial vehicles segments.

Key Features REA is an electro mechanical device mounted on the compressor housing and connected to the VNT (for diesel applications) or the wastegate (for gasoline applications). In diesel applications, the electronic control of diesel fuel injection in recent years precipitated the need for the electronic control of airflow. Working in conjunction with Honeywell VNT turbos, the REA provides this control in both steady state and transient mode by knowing and controlling the vane position. It communicates with the Engine Management Unit (EMU) in either analogue, PWM or CAN form, receiving and carrying out instructions instantaneously. In gasoline applications, REA works through the control of the wastegate.

VNT

Variable Nozzle Turbines (VNT) use nine moveable vanes, an electrohydraulic actuator and a proportional solenoid for variable control throughout the engine’s power curve. This means the air passageway of the turbo varies to meet the engine’s needs at different RPMs. Forty million VNT turbochargers have been sold since the 1990s. VNT DutyDrive, previously called Double Axle VNT, uses 12-19 turbine nozzle vanes supported by twin axles for trucks and buses.

Dual-Stage

Dual-Stage turbochargers use two smaller turbochargers either side-by-side or in sequence. The first is used at low speeds and a valve opens up the second as engine RPMs increase. The dual-stage used in the Audi A6/A7 three liter V6 engine however runs both turbochargers at a lower pressure mode and some use one larger turbo followed by a smaller one. The Dualboost has dual compressors to mimic a twin turbocharger.

Patents

Honeywell has patented a single-cartridge, dual ball bearing technology, which uses a single sleeve system with a set of angular ball bearings on either end. This creates a rolling rather than sliding mechanism between parts intended to reduce the amount of pressure required to achieve airflow.