|SUCCESS STORY
There’s a tiger hidden under the hood
Linamar Corporation’s Opti-Power innovation boosts automotive performance in a simple and effective way. The Ontario company’s technology also promises to help automakers achieve greater efficiencies in the drive to reduce emissions.
The auto-racing world offers automakers a lot more than glamorous marketing opportunities. Intense competition has spawned numerous innovations, from the rear view mirror, seat belts and shoulder harnesses to better tires and high performance engines that deliver exceptional fuel economy.
One of the latest innovations with racing roots is Opti-Power, a performance-enhancing technology developed by Linamar Corporation of Guelph, Ontario.
“It all started when one of our OEM customers asked our McLaren Performance Technologies Division to come up with a cost-effective way to add power and performance to a sports car,” said Linda Hasenfratz, Linamar’s President and CEO. “We used a combination of McLaren’s racing experience and computerized combustion analysis tools to optimize the engine’s cylinder heads. The results were great: a significant increase in overall efficiency and impressive performance levels.”
As a major supplier to OEMs around the world, Linamar immediately saw the potential the new technology offered for conventional uses. The company, founded as a one-man machine shop by Frank Hasenfratz in 1966, now has 36 plants worldwide and sales of more than $2.26 billion (2006). The development of the Opti-Power technology offers a clear example of Linamar’s great strength: a customer and product-focused group structure that moves innovations from concept to application very quickly.
“The success of Opti-Power demonstrates our culture of collaboration,” said Ms. Hasenfratz. “Unique skills in one discipline are combined with abilities and competencies in another area to create an extraordinary product.”
Opti-Power uses custom cylinder heads to optimize the flow of the fuel/air “charge” prior to the combustion cycle. The process is not new in the racing world, but it had never been used in production vehicles because of extremely high costs.
“These custom cylinder heads for racing typically cost thousands of dollars,” said Ms. Hasenfratz, “so they’re unsuitable for mass production. Our real achievement here is that we have found a way to machine these optimized cylinder heads at a normal production cost for our customers.”
OEM customers have already used Opti-Power in two high-performance vehicles, and are developing new programs that will take advantage of the technology for a broader range of applications.
“You can achieve a lot of different things using Opti-Power,” said Ms. Hasenfratz. “Customers can use it to extend the product life of an older engine, to meet new emission standards and increase power. This can lengthen the design cycle of the engine, which can also save the auto manufacturer a lot of money. Or if they want to improve the NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) on an older engine, they can do that without re-engineering the entire power train.”
The automotive industry has noted Opti-Power’s advantages. Linamar was a finalist in the prestigious PACE Awards, sponsored by the industry’s journal of record, Automotive News. The Ontario company was one of only 23 finalists in a field of more than 3,000 from around the world. Daimler Chrysler is using Opti-Power for the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT’s V10 engine, which produces 600 horsepower.
“This technology is definitely not confined to high-powered vehicles,” she said. “The same method can help produce a fuel-efficient family car, and I’m confident we’ll see that application of Opti-Power in the near future. It has tremendous potential to help develop the cleaner engines we need.”
A company built on innovation
Over the past 41 years, Linamar has grown from a machine shop in the basement of founder Frank Hasenfratz’s home to a global corporation that employs more than 12,000 people. Innovation continues to drive the company’s growth. In May 2006, Linamar announced an investment of $1.1 billion to develop their products and their people through R&D and training. A portion of the funding will support the creation of an advanced manufacturing technology centre in Guelph that will help create 3,000 highly skilled jobs in the area.
Supported by an investment $44.5 million from the Ontario Government’s Ontario Automotive Investment Strategy, Linamar’s R&D strategy and new technology centre is dedicated to innovation in the engineering and production of automotive power trains. The centre’s innovations will strengthen the competitiveness of Linamar's 22 Guelph-area plants to help produce the efficient vehicles of the future.
For further information, or to provide comments, email Dino Rocca
