Despite the slump in the commercial vehicles business due to the introduction of Euro V in a key market Brazil, combined with the European sovereign debt crisis, the MAN Group has released a new range of construction vehicles with Euro VI engines to the European market for MAN’s entire range of products from TGL to TGS as well as TGX.
The MAN Group closed fiscal 2012 with an operating profit of just under €1 billion (AU $1.29790 billion) down from 4% on the prior record year, no doubt spurred on by a massive buy up before the new emissions standards took hold in Brazil.
MAN relies on an efficient concept comprising electronically regulated exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) and exhaust-gas aftertreatment employing a CRT soot filter system and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) to meet the Euro VI regulations.
The key technologies necessary for Euro VI – common-rail injection system, exhaust-gas recirculation, two-stage turbocharging with intercooling, diesel particulate filter and SCR system – have for years successfully been proving their suitability for practical operation in MAN vehicles. Cooled exhaust-gas recirculation has been standard on trucks since 2000, SCR technology since 2005.
The developers’ primary goal was to keep fuel consumption down to the recognised low levels of Euro V without loss of power or torque.
This means that MAN can continue to offer its customers efficient and reliable vehicles for daily operation.
By comparison with the Euro V standard, Euro VI requires a reduction of 80 percent in NOx emissions (from 2 g/kWh to 0.4 g/kWh) and a reduction of 66 percent in particulate mass (from 0.03 g/kWh to 0.01 g/kWh) with effect from 2014. This is why exhaust-gas aftertreatment consists of an oxidation catalytic converter in conjunction with a closed diesel particulate filter as well as SCR catalytic converters and associated sensors. MAN positions this entire system, known as SCRT (Selective Catalytic Reduction Technology), com-pactly on the right side of the vehicle behind the front mudguard in the exhaust silencer.
Euro VI engines with outputs of 220 hp (162 kW) up to the current maximum of 480 hp (353 kW) employ a combination of two-stage turbocharging with primary cooling and cooling and intercooling of the boost air. MAN consciously bases its strategy on two separate rugged and reliable turbochargers that share the job of increasing boost-air pressure instead of a single more complex turbocharger with variable turbine geometry. The result is a very high degree of efficiency with input power delivered fast across the whole engine-speed range and a longer service life for the system.
The maximum torque of MAN’s new Euro VI engines is available at low engine speeds across a wider speed range than Euro V engines. In the heavy-duty series, the 320-hp (235-kW) engine outputs a maximum torque of 1,600 Nm at an engine speed as low as 930 rpm and maintains it up to 1,400 rpm. The same applies to the 360-hp (265-kW) engine with 1,800 Nm, the 400-hp (294-kW) engine with 1,900 Nm, the 440-hp (324-kW) engine with 2,100 Nm and the 480-hp (353-kW) engine with 2,300 Nm. The Euro VI vehicles can thus show their teeth off-road while being economical in on-road operation. These two aspects are demonstrated in a particularly impressive manner at 440 hp, which in Euro VI is now delivered by the engine with the largest capacity, 12.6 litres.
In formulating its regeneration strategy for the diesel particulate filter, MAN also paid special attention to maximum operational reliability. Regeneration in normal operation takes place independently and automatically. This enables almost all the particles that have been collected in the filter to be broken down while the vehicle is being driven. The particularly large surface of the ceramic filter elements enables long filter service lives. The oil-ash residue that collects in the diesel particulate filter after several hundred thousand kilometres is removed by replacing the filter element during servicing. The vehicle’s service interval calculator recommends the intervals between cleaning, taking into account the operating conditions and the continually monitored exhaust-gas backpressure.
MAN positions the Euro VI exhaust silencer on the right side of the vehicle. This means that the well-known ease of mounting bodies on MAN chassis is retained because, as in the past, no parts protrude above the top edge of the frame. As industry-specific equipment, at bauma 2013 MAN is presenting upswept exhaust pipes at the rear of the cab. This is important primarily for vehicles that run the power take-off while stationary as it considerably reduces the exposure of an operator next to or behind the vehicle to exhaust emissions. MAN stays light – the weight of the system increases by only around 150 kg for the MAN TGL with a four-cylinder engine and by around 200 kg for TGL and TGM vehicles equipped with six-cylinder engines. The Euro VI exhaust-gas cleaning components similarly add only around 200 kg to the unladen weight of the TGS and TGX.