Faurecia designs and manufactures a wide range of exhaust systems
Auto component major Faurecia inaugurated its state-of-the-art R&D centre- Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies (FECT) in Bangalore. Spread across 30,000 sq ft facility and manned by about 200 engineers the tech centre will support Faurecia’s design and validation of emission control system programmes in Europe, Asia, North and South America.
Christophe Schmitt, executive vice president, FECT said, “We see India as a very important market; the company will rapidly invest in India to introduce emission control technologies over the next five years and offer products complying with evolving BS IV and BS V emission norms.”
FECT will design, develop and manufacture entire exhaust systems – from manifolds to mufflers. Faurecia has manufacturing plants in Pune, Chennai and Bangalore, producing exhaust components like hot-end, cold-end manifold, welded and lock-seam muffler boxes, spun mufflers, bent pipes, catalytic converters and diesel filters serving leading automobile companies – Fiat, Ford, GM, Hyundai, Maruti-Suzuki, Renault-Nissan, Tata, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Luc Herbin, vice president R&D, said the Bangalore tech centre will be working on three key areas of innovation: weight reduction, pollutant emissions control and energy recovery. The centre will report to Faurecia’s global R&D management team. “We are also deploying a full range of solutions to reduce environmental impact and fuel consumption by using Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR), exhaust heat recovery manifold for energy recovery, and adopting induction brazing technology for reducing the weight of the manifolds and exhaust systems by 30 percent.”
Faurecia deals with the market demand for lighter-components by using a unique self-adjusting adaptive valve for its cold-end exhaust components. This saves weight by halving the size of the muffler. Also, use of brazing in the welding process decreases thickness of each component and enhances system quality.
The company has also developed the Blue Box SCR for emission reduction and efficient recovery of nitrogen oxide. FECT has developed the Exhaust Heat Recovery Manifold (EHRM) jointly with Ford that utilises the exhaust heat to warm interiors faster, which further brings down fuel consumption and pollutant emissions.
The company uses advanced CAD/ CAE tools to design exhaust system architecture and optimise performance. Decreasing weight of the system is a key area of focus to improve fuel efficiency and lower CO2 emissions. Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis and Acoustics Simulation tools are used to virtually validate product designs in different operating conditions. The centre is connected to Faurecia Global Purchasing for supply management.
Faurecia’s second R&D centre, in Pune, began in 2012 for interior systems, seating and auto exteriors with an investment of Rs 110 crore. The company also has nine production facilities in Pune, Manesar, Chennai, Bangalore and Sanand. ACI
Story & Photography : Bhargav TS
