MMC Magazine

The global spread of automobiles has totally surpassed the imagination of the early days and has given rise to new issues in the form of environmental concerns. In the 1960s, exhaust gas regulations were first established in California and Japan, and from this emerged the development of various environmental technologies by automobile manufacturers striving to satisfy these regulations. Today, automobile manufacturers are expected not only to make continuous efforts to eliminate harmful substances from exhaust gas in order to prevent air pollution, but to also minimize the emission of carbon dioxide, which is a principal greenhouse effect gas.
These modern countermeasures have also had the effect of reducing fuel consumption and generating advantages for the consumer.

Electric vehicles, which do not consume gasoline have also begun to penetrate the market. These include electric vehicles that require charging, those that are equipped with fuel cells that generate electricity within the car (use hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity and discharge water as a result), and those that are equipped with an engine that acts as a generator in addition to fuel cells. Engines for electricity generation are also called range extenders. Various types of range extenders, such as reciprocating engines, rotary engines and turbines are already commercially available or have been proposed. They are one of the most practical systems for the diffusion of electric vehicles as they utilize existing fuel infrastructures even though they are specifically designed to generate electricity.
Some vehicles equipped with a range extender even deliver a fuel efficiency of more than 60 km/L*.

Self-generating electric vehicles that maintain optimal driving mode in various driving situations
The Plug-in Hybrid EV System (PHEV) was developed independently by Mitsubishi Motors as a new derivative electric vehicle. When driving at low to medium speeds through residential areas, PHEV switches to EV Driving Mode that mainly uses electricity from the drive battery. When the drive battery runs low or powerful acceleration is needed, it switches to Series Driving Mode so that the engine automatically begins to generate electricity and supplies power to the motors and battery. When driving at higher speeds it switches to Parallel Driving Mode to convey the high-rpm, high-efficiency driving power of the engine directly to the transmission and to also assist the motors. Furthermore, when decelerating the motors act as a generator to regenerate the deceleration energy and recharge the drive batteries.

FMAX face milling cutter for high-efficiency finish machining

The advancement of production technologies is essential to the realization of fuel efficiency. This is also true in the metal cutting industry. The turbo charger is not new technology, but the production of efficient turbos was made possible by the advancement of cutting tools capable of high-efficiency, prolonged machining of materials that can withstand high-temperature exhaust gases, the source of power for turbines.
Additionally, lower production costs have become possible, for example by the high efficiency machining of cylinder blocks and heads previously made of cast iron but that are now made mainly from aluminium. Mitsubishi Materials' cutting tool business has worked closely with automobile manufacturers both in Japan and overseas and has engaged in the advancement of machining technologies throughout its 80-year history.
Thus far technologies that support improved fuel efficiency of automobiles, with the main focus on the motor have been introduced. However, in reality the foundation of such technologies is extremely wide and includes transmissions that are used in combination with the motor, drive systems and lightweight bodies and even extends to motor oil, low-resistance tyres and improvement of the fuel itself.
Nevertheless, motors, transmissions, drive systems and bodies to which these components are assembled and mounted to are mostly made of metal. Automobiles may someday be made solely of plastic and electric parts, but that day is probably still far in the future. Mitsubishi Materials' cutting tools will therefore continue to realize machining processes that contribute to the further growth of the automotive industry.