Sky-Active Technologies
The sides of cars have been lately laced with elegant nameplates such as Blue Motion, Blue Effectiveness, Effective Dynamics, Ecobust … All these beautiful, but incomprehensible names hide in general one sense: the engines of such cars are different degrees are “strangled” by electronics so that they’re less crap into the atmosphere. As a result, the feeling of driving such a car often does not fit in with its declared power. The designers of Mazda came up with an extraordinary thought - increasing the efficiency of the motor and other automotive units, it turns out, will achieve the same goal!
Modern ICE uses its potential by no more than 30% - primarily due to heat loss. Discarding the myth of their inevitability, the Japanese increased the degree of compression to 14 sports units in a Sky-Active-G gasoline engine. We managed to overcome the detonation with the help of a special long exhaust manifold, which prevents the return of exhaust gases to the combustion chamber, pistons with recesses in the bottoms, injection nozzles with a large number of atomizers and other technical tricks. This gave a 15% increase in torque and also reduced fuel consumption.
Sky-Active Technologies
In the Sky-Active-D turbodiesel, the compression ratio was, on the contrary, reduced to the same 14 to stretch the gas expansion phase during the combustion process. As a result, the appetite of the engine was reduced by 20%, and the amount of harmful emissions meets even the Euro-6 standards that have not yet been introduced, without using additional neutralizers. Stable cold start - the Achilles heel of many diesel engines - is provided by adjusting the valve lift height.
They did not escape the radical alteration of the gearbox. The automatic Sky-Active Drive with the widest locking range at all six steps acquired a new small-sized torque converter, and the vacant space was given to a larger damper and multi-plate locking clutch. In addition to a smooth gear shift and quick response to the gas pedal, the “automatic” can save up to 7% of fuel. A manual gearbox with a shortened intermediate shaft dispensed with a separate axis for the reverse gear and lost 7 to 16% in weight, depending on the version.
The Sky-Avtiv-Body body has become stronger and safer, but at the same time lighter. Its rigidity increased by 30% due to the use of frame elements of the most straight form and four “strapping” belts attached to amplifiers with glue. Bearing elements are made of thin high-strength steel, so Sky-Active of the future Mazda-6 model, for example, is 20 kg lighter than its modern body. The safety level has grown significantly: in a frontal collision, energy is absorbed in three directions: to the front struts, to the bottom power elements and to the middle parts of the body sides.
Sky-Active Technologies
And finally, the Sky-Asset Chassis provides superior handling. The mass of the suspension is 14% less than the previous version, which has a beneficial effect on the behavior of the car. By increasing the angle of the longitudinal inclination of the axis of rotation of the wheel, the designers have achieved increased stability at high speed - now the wheels are eager to return to straight motion.
All these Sky Assets will be used by car only in the complex. Cars with these technologies will begin to be sold in Europe in 2012, although Mazda-Demio with a 1.3-liter engine and Mazda-3 with a 2 liter unit will appear in Japan before the end of the year in Japan. Sky-Active will come to Russia in the form of a CX-5 with a 2-liter gasoline engine.
The Japanese hope to create a car that is not inferior in efficiency and environmental friendliness to hybrids. By 2015, at the expense of Sky-Active, they promise to achieve 30 percent fuel economy for all Mazda models compared to the 2008 level. At the same time, the price will be affordable not only for extravagant oligarchs, in contrast to deliberately green competitors.
