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

  • Semi-autonomous hybrid vehicle trials show fuel, emission savings
    July 16, 2012
    The Transport Research Laboratory has unveiled an innovative semi-autonomous vehicle prototype. It offers improves in environmental performance and safety but also displays some shortcomings. Mike Woof reports. The UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has been working on an innovative project to develop a prototype vehicle intended to reduce fuel consumption. Based on a Ford Escape hybrid model, TRL's Sentience vehicle uses a combination of mobile communications and mapping technologies to reduce fuel c
  • Outlook good for transportation technology funding
    January 25, 2012
    Chris Cheever and Chris Thomas of Fontinalis Partners discuss the funding outlook for the ITS industry – where the money’s going to come from, and what needs to happen to facilitate change
  • Bit by bit insurers agree data protocol
    November 7, 2013
    Telematics technology may be a game changer for the automobile insurance industry but it comes with some caveats as Colin Sowman discovers. James Bielak, (P&C) program manager at the US office of ACORD (the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), has an unenviable job: to devise a standard form of communicating vehicle data between telematics providers and insurance companies. To that end he has gathered together a group composed of insurers, telematics providers and other intere
  • ASECAP examines tolling’s trials, tribulations and triumphs
    September 4, 2018
    If you want to get up to speed on the main issues facing the transport sector and tolling companies, ASECAP Study Days event in Ljubljana was a good place to start. Colin Sowman reports (Photographs: Louis David). Increasing populations, ever-higher technical and safety requirements, and electric and hybrid vehicles will provide both challenges and opportunities for tolling companies. The annual Study Days event organised by ASECAP (the European association for tolling companies) examined all of these aspec