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Al Neal Joins Autologue Computer Systems
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By Counterman
NTN Bearing Corp., the parent company of BCA Bearings and Bower Bearings, announced the addition of Kevin Huckins to the company’s automotive aftermarket sales team.
Huckins is joining NTN’s automotive aftermarket business unit as regional sales manager, Western region.
“We are thrilled to add Kevin to our sales management team,” said Charles Harris, vice president of sales & marketing – automotive aftermarket for NTN. “His in-depth knowledge of the automotive and heavy-duty aftermarkets are an important asset to our organization, and his experience in sales management and ability to navigate our multifaceted distribution channels make him the ideal candidate to take our western region to the next level. I welcome his energetic, get it done attitude, and look forward to empowering his success in this role.”
Huckins, who resides in the Seattle area, joins NTN with an extensive and successful background in sales management in the automotive and heavy-duty aftermarkets, NTN noted.
His experience includes 26 years as an area/regional sales manager for Tenneco on the automotive side, followed by six years as a regional manager for Industrial Parts Depot, where he focused on the heavy-duty aftermarket.
In his role as regional sales manager, Western region, Huckins will manage NTN’s multipronged sales efforts and sales-agency partners for the automotive aftermarket and heavy-duty aftermarket business segments.
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By Counterman
DMA announced the appointment of David Sapp as its new assistant product manager.
During his tenure as an account manager at Auto Plus Auto Parts, Sapp significantly increased local accounts in the Chattanooga area, achieving a notable 15% year-over-year sales growth, DMA said in a news release.
His role as a broker account manager at Capital Waste Services saw him successfully elevate national brokerage accounts by 26% year-over-year and increase local sales in the Chattanooga/North Georgia markets by 18% year-over-year.
Sapp’s leadership as sales and marketing director at Ken Smith Auto Parts Inc. resulted in the development of the online sales program, increasing annual revenue from $600,000 in 2012 to $2.8 million in 2018, DMA noted.
Sapp holds an A.S. in Automotive Technology Management Services from the College of Central Florida in Ocala, Florida, and a bachelor’s in theology from CIMN in Santa Rosa Beach.
“David’s proficiency in product analytics, coupled with his hands-on experience in the industry, positions him as a valuable asset to our product development team,” stated Trevor Potter, DMA chief product & marketing officer.
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By Counterman
The fuel system, as a whole, is responsible for delivering fuel from the tank to the engine, then metering it into the combustion chamber. It consists of the tank, the lines, the pump and the metering device. If only it was as simple as it sounds. The challenge lies in the continual changes over the last century, and how the frequency of changes has increased over recent decades.
The heart and identity of any fuel system is the metering device or system that controls the flow of fuel into an engine. As a counter professional, you’re going to hear it all, and you’ll have to answer it all, so here’s a rundown on the major changes and differences over the years.
Carburetion Systems
A carburetor is a basic mechanical device, and the primary metering device used on the earliest automobiles. Carburetors held their ground until the late 1980s, when the last examples were eventually replaced by fuel injection. The job of a carburetor is to not only meter the fuel but also to properly mix it with the air flowing into the engine through the process of atomization.
As the automotive industry began to migrate to fuel injection, a knee-jerk reaction opposing fuel injection ensued. We were familiar with carburetors, and liked the fact that they were mechanical devices that could be repaired and rebuilt using basic hand tools, and there were no electronics involved. Regardless of who made the carburetor or what style it was, an experienced technician could diagnose and repair a problem without the need for service information, scan tools or electronics.
Though considered “simple,” carburetors are more complicated than they seem, with multiple different circuits to manage all aspects of engine operation. “Tuning” a carburetor – the art of balancing performance, efficiency and drivability – takes a considerable knowledge of engine operating principles, and the patience and precision to get it right.
The majority of carbureted vehicles utilize mechanical fuel pumps, driven off the engine. This too adds to the attraction of these vehicles, as again there were no electronics involved. The drawback to carburetors came in their lack of ability for precise fuel control. They simply couldn’t keep up with the tightening noose of emission and fuel-economy standards that was in full force by the 1970s. As the end of their use in production automobiles came near, some electronics were incorporated into them, but ultimately proved ineffective.
Today, any professional will admit – regardless of complexity – that fuel injection is simply superior and necessary. However, carburetion is still popular on old vehicles, partly because of its relative simplicity, but also due to the popularity of restoring old cars to their original state. While far from commonplace, carburetor rebuild kits aren’t going away anytime soon.
Fuel-Injection Systems
The advantage of fuel injection is the ability to precisely control fuel delivery under all operating conditions. Not only is this a necessity for emissions and fuel economy, but it also has a major advantage in drivability – an operational attribute that goes hand in hand with efficiency and performance.
Attempts at fuel injection are as old as the internal combustion engine itself, but in the early days, too many bugs made it undependable. By the 1950s, substantial engineering efforts were applied to develop fuel injection, both in the United States and Europe. One of the more well-known systems was the original Rochester fuel injection developed by Chevrolet for the 1957 Chevrolet and Corvette.
The idea behind developing this fuel injection wasn’t in the interest of horsepower or emission control. It was drivability, with the goal to eliminate the undesirable and unavoidable attributes of a carburetor, including fuel slosh in the fuel bowl and the transition between primary and secondary circuits. As you may expect, racers played a substantial part in all this, and the best part is they were very successful, and it unlocked horsepower as well!
The Rochester fuel-injection system was available from 1957 through 1965, but it ultimately failed for only one reason: cost. It was an expensive option, and with the muscle-car wars in full force and much higher-horsepower carbureted engines available for a fraction of the cost, nobody was buying.
By the late 1970s, fuel injection was better-developed, and this time emissions and fuel economy played a strong part. It began its rise to the top, and thanks to the advancements in electronic and computer technology, it got there quick. By the early 1990s, carburetion was all but gone from production automobiles.
Fuel-injection systems can be separated into multiple categories and types, and since you’ll hear multiple terms, here’s how to tell them apart.
Mechanical Fuel Injection
Early gasoline fuel-injection systems were mechanical. The pumps were mechanical, and fuel was delivered directly to nozzles located in the intake manifold. The pressure of the fuel caused the fuel injectors to open. A type of air meter was necessary, but early systems relied primarily on vacuum signals or mechanical linkage between the air meter and fuel-distribution meter to determine the proper amount of fuel. Very minimal if any electronics were involved in these systems.
Early diesel fuel-injection systems were purely mechanical as well, but the difference was the required fuel pressure. It doesn’t require much pressure to inject fuel into an intake manifold, but it requires extremely high pressure to inject fuel directly into a cylinder (such as is necessary for a diesel). Diesel-injection pumps housed a mechanical high-pressure pump to feed the fuel to the injectors.
One of the most common gasoline fuel-injection systems to become popular beginning in the late 1970s was the Bosch Continuous Injection System (CIS). This, too, was overall a mechanical system, but an electric pump supplied the fuel, and minor electronics played a part in cold-start functions as well as fuel-mixture control.
Electronic Fuel Injection
Electronic fuel injection was a terminology that became well-known in the 1980s and was often indicated by the letters “EFI” on the back of a car. It seemed revolutionary at the time, and it indicated that the systems were now completely electronically controlled. It was this point in time when fuel pumps found their way into the gas tank; injectors were basically solenoids that opened the injector upon command from a computer; and the computer – along with a myriad of sensors – controlled everything surrounding the operation of the system.
Even though EFI was an early term that would now be as redundant as saying you have antilock brakes on a new car, it’s technically still an accurate term. It’s just not used often because it’s assumed – and correctly – that everything on a new car is tied to electronics. EFI is a term that can include many different types of fuel injection.
Throttle-Body Injection
Throttle-body injection (TBI) refers to the fuel injector(s) being located in a throttle body that looks almost like a carburetor at a glance. This was done by design, as it was the most efficient and quickest way for auto manufacturers to make the change to fuel injection, while utilizing many of the same components they already had such as the same intake manifolds and air cleaners. TBI was most common in the 1980s and early 1990s.
We’ve always loved fancy names. Have you ever heard of cross-fire injection? It was two throttle bodies at opposite corners of the intake manifold.
Port Fuel Injection
TBI was at a disadvantage because airflow was interrupted by the injector, and port injection was the next advancement in line. Port, or multi-point injection injects fuel into the intake runner just before the intake valve for each cylinder. The advantage is the ability to precisely control the fuel delivery and balance the airflow into each cylinder, leading to increased power output and improved fuel economy.
Early mechanical fuel-injection systems were port-injection systems, sans electronic control. Seem confusing? Many fuel-injection terms cross over from new to old technology. There are just so many manufacturer-specific names that it can be confusing! Like EFI, port injection was widely advertised as the latest greatest advancement, with tuned port injection topping the performance charts. Port injection still is the most common type of fuel injection used today, but when was the last time you saw it called out? Nobody really says it anymore because it’s not new. But there’s another technology that we’re not done talking about, and that’s direct injection.
Direct Injection
Direct means the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber. Direct injection has been around for years in the diesel world, but it’s still relatively new for gasoline engines. The challenge with this type of injection is injecting the fuel into the high compression of the combustion chamber. Just like a diesel, it requires extremely high fuel pressure, and gasoline direct injection utilizes a typical electric pump to supply fuel to the rail, plus a mechanically driven high-pressure fuel pump to supply the necessary pressure for injection.
The primary advantage of direct injection is that there’s less time for the air/fuel mixture to heat up since the fuel isn’t injected in the cylinder until immediately before combustion. This reduces the chance of detonation, or the fuel igniting from the heat and pressure in the cylinder. This allows a direct-injected engine to have higher compression, which itself lends to higher performance.
There are additional advantages of reduced emissions and better fuel economy, but there also are some now-familiar drawbacks, including carbon buildup on the backs of the intake valves, low speed pre-ignition and limited high-rpm performance. For this reason, many manufacturers are combining both direct- and port-injection systems.
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By Counterman
Patrick Smith recently joined the KYB Aftermarket team in Greenwood, Indiana, as the business operations manager.
The Army veteran will oversee sales and distribution-center administrative functions, focusing on streamlining procedures and improving efficiencies.
Smith spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an engineer officer, serving in construction and combat engineer positions. His military career culminated as a company commander at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and has a master of science in organizational leadership.
After his military career, Smith spent two years working in the technology industry with a focus on supply chain and logistics. Smith stated that “he was looking to join a team-oriented organization with a great culture.” His experience aligned with the role, and he knew that KYB was the right place for him after meeting the team, KYB noted.
“In his new role, Smith will help the KYB Aftermarket team improve operations by achieving new ways to more efficiently and effectively support our customers and teammates,” KYB said in a news release. “Our goal is to be our customers’ best supplier. Patrick main’s assignment is to help keep KYB focused on that objective.”
Originally from Seymour, Indiana, Smith will complete his MBA from the Indiana University Kelly School of Business this fall. He currently resides in Indianapolis with his wife and two sons.
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