Skip to main content

The challenges of start-stop technology

According to automotive technology supplier Dayco, the number of vehicles featuring start-stop technology will continue to rise over the next few years. The company says that it is only by incorporating such a function into a number of models in each range, that vehicle manufacturers will be able to reduce their fleet average emission levels and achieve the targets that EU legislation demands. Dayco, in alliance with Peugeot/Citroën, has developed a starter/alternator that has an auxiliary belt system w
September 9, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
According to automotive technology supplier Dayco, the number of vehicles featuring start-stop technology will continue to rise over the next few years.  The company says that it is only by incorporating such a function into a number of models in each range, that vehicle manufacturers will be able to reduce their fleet average emission levels and achieve the targets that EU legislation demands.

Dayco, in alliance with Peugeot/Citroën, has developed a starter/alternator that has an auxiliary belt system with the strength to start and restart the engine instantly when the vehicle needs to pull away, but is no wider than a standard auxiliary belt. In contrast to a conventional belt system, the patented Dayco self tensioning system (STS) maintains a balanced tension on both sides of the belt in relation to the starter/alternator drive pulley. Instead of having a tensioner on just one side of the belt system, the tensioning device connects both sides of the starter/alternator belt system.

The Dayco STS is designed to create a balance of forces between the two sides at all times, which enables the starter/alternator to seamlessly switch between its starting and charging modes to allow the vehicle’s start-stop system to function to its full potential.

The major development of this self-balancing device is the rigid connection of its pulleys, which allows it to maintain the correct belt tension irrespective of the direction of the load.

Related Content

  • Machine vision needs standards to fulfil ITS demands
    May 28, 2014
    No-one should expect the enabling qualities of machine vision to come free of charge but Jason Barnes finds there is still much that ITS stakeholders can do to help reduce costs. After many years of application in high-end solutions for the enforcement and tolling sectors, machine vision is gaining traction in more general areas of traffic management. Nevertheless, those OEMs producing transport-oriented solutions which incorporate machine vision and looking to increase the technology’s share of the ITS mar
  • New services and equipment helps cities tackle air quality issues
    September 19, 2017
    With poor urban air quality shortening lives and fines being imposed for breaching pollution limits, authorities are seeking ways to clean up their cities. Poor air quality is topping the agenda for city authorities across the globe. In the UK, for example, a report from the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Paediatrics and Child Health, concluded that poor outdoor air quality shortens the lives of around 40,000 people a year – principally by undermining the health of people with heart and/or lung prob
  • Vision technology lifts blinkers from tunnel vision
    December 6, 2017
    Sony’s Jerome Avenel looks at how advances in imaging technology are helping improve safety. On the 24th March 1999, a Belgian truck transporting flour and margarine through the 11.6km Mont Blanc tunnel caught alight when a cigarette stub entered the engine induction snorkel, lighting the paper air filter. The fire left over 30 dead and many more injured. At the time, the Mont Blanc tunnel disaster was the world’s worst tunnel fire.
  • Camera technology a flexible and cost-effective option
    June 7, 2012
    Perceptions of machine vision being an expensive solution are being challenged by developments in both core technologies and ancillaries. Here, Jason Barnes and David Crawford look at the latest developments in the sector. A notable aspect of machine vision is the flexibility it offers in terms of how and how much data is passed around a network. With smart cameras, processing capabilities at the front end mean that only that which is valid need be communicated back to a central processor of any descripti