Cummins: Mechanical Engines to Electronic Engines

Anjali Pandey

Vice President, Engine Business and Components Business, Cummins India

Cummins is a global company with a 100+ year-old history in building diesel engines. Cummins established its presence in India in 1962 as a joint venture catering to gensets, industrial, and off-highway applications and later extended the offerings to automotive and other applications.

Early Days

The major focus on the construction equipment market came with the introduction of B5.9 product in the last two decades. This was a 6-cylinder, 5.9 litre mechanical engine offering peak power range of 131-169 hp and a peak torque range of 538-660N-m, rightly suited for the Indian construction equipment market. This engine had a mechanical fuel pump, with turbo charger and no requirement of an aftertreatment.

This was a globally designed product engineered to Indian needs. The robust product design was leveraged across the on-highway segment and construction equipment market, thereby generating economies of scale for new engine production and to serve parts availability for aftermarket.

In construction equipment, over the years this product gained prominence and now commands a dominant market share.  The application of the engine extends across multiple segments like excavators, wheel loaders, motor graders, compactors, compressor, and others. Following the same, Cummins also launched the 4-cylinder B3.9 with 100 hp peak power and 385 Nm peak torque. This engine is designed and engineered to power mid-size excavators, compressor, and compactor.

These ‘made in India’ 6- cylinder and 4-cylinder engines are exported to multiple countries both directly to get fitted in various equipment or indirectly through the export of made in India equipment.

Evolution

Over the years, engines have evolved to meet the latest emission norms, improved on reliability, durability, and fuel efficiency. These changes are led by evolution of technology in fuel system, air handling, manufacturing, and introduction of electronic controls to the engine.

Regulatory push and customer requirements both necessitated the need for changes. While Indian customers were constantly looking to improve fuel efficiency and reliability, it is the mandated regulatory push which led to tectonic shifts in introduction of new product technologies.

India saw emissions norms getting introduced for construction equipment for the first time in year 2008 with Bharat stage II (BS-II) norms. Since then emission norms have upgraded twice to the latest emission norms of CEV BS-IV implemented from April 2021.

Cummins’ first series of 6-cylinder, 5.9 litre and 4-cylinder 3.9ltr engines were launched during the time when there were no defined emission regulations for construction equipment in India. However, these engines were so capable that they could be upgraded to meet BS III emission levels, with limited modifications.

The latest construction equipment emission norms CEV BS IV, applicable from April 21, requires significant reduction in the level of pollutants from BS III (85% drop in NOx and >90% drop in PM). To reach these lower levels, a tighter control on various engine parameters are required. This necessitates moving to electronic engines, where fuel system and air handling is controlled by an electronic controller. This also requires an active aftertreatment system, where the various pollutants are filtered out in phases through closely controlled mechanisms.

For the construction equipment industry, Cummins is now offering a range of electronic engines. QSBe4.5 and QSBe6.7 are the latest series of 4- and 6-cylinder engines, providing a wide range of power and torque offerings. The 4-cylinder QSBe4.5 comes with multiple peak power ratings ranging from 121 to 173hp and a peak torque of 500Nm and 705Nm. And the 6cylinder QSBe6.7 comes with peak power ratings of 170 and 260hp and a peak torque of 881Nm and 1100Nm.

These engines offer best in class fuel efficiency, power to weight ratio and meets the latest emission norms.

The 4-cylinder product comes with a compact aftertreatment architecture of only a Diesel Oxidation Catalysts (DOC) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR), making it a versatile product for varied applications. The 6-cylinder product with a DOC, SCR and DPF (Diesel Particulate Filters) providing product longevity to meet even the next emission level of CEV BS V.

With the new emission norms, OEMs have an additional challenge to package the aftertreatment system. This requires significant modifications to the equipment design. However, Cummins’ compact 4-cylinder engine with higher power density offering, can meet the power and torque requirement of the equipment which was earlier addressed by a bigger 6-cylinder engine. This helps OEMs to package Cummins engines with minimal changes to their product and yet deliver superior performance.

These engines offered along with advance aftertreatment solutions to meet the latest emission norms, makes Cummins the one stop solution for the entire powertrain. This eases the emission transition for OEMs by ensuring timely compliance, superior product launch and reduced investments. 

Future Technologies

Climate change and rising pollution levels have posed a big challenge ahead of us and would necessitate change in technologies. In the process to transition, while emission norms will become tighter, we believe there will be diversification of technology before we adopt zero emission-based technology.

For diesel, going ahead, we see adoption of CEV BS V and stricter norms. Further to reduce import bill government would introduce adoption on blended fuels (Biodiesel). However over long term there would be a need to move away from diesel engine to zero emission-based technologies to reduce global warming.

To address the emerging future market needs, Cummins is investing in developing a host of powertrain technologies including advance diesel, biodiesel, hybrid, electric and hydrogen base fuel cell.

Cummins has already developed commercialized solutions to meet tighter diesel emission norms. The latest 4-cylinder (QSBe4.5) and 6-cylinder (QSBe6.7) Cummins products in India are already designed and capable to meet to the future CEV V emission norms. Furthermore, Cummins has the right technologies to to go to the next level as well. In future, these products will also be capable to adopt biodiesel (B7-B20) levels.

Over the long term, to address global warming we would need zero emission-based technologies. Cummins is already developing and piloting these technologies across the world. Cummins today offers electric powertrain solutions for applications like terminal tractors, mini excavators, and forklifts. These technologies can be further extended to various other applications based on customer, work environment and regulatory needs.

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