ARLINGTON, Va. —The Truck Writers of North America (TWNA) announced Detroit Diesel Corporation’s DD15 engine turbo compounding as the winner of its Technical Achievement Award for 2008 during TMC’s 2009 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 9-12.
Chuck Blake, Detroit Diesel's senior technical sales support manager, accepted the award on behalf of Detroit Diesel. The award recognizes a product or service that exhibits technical innovation, has a wide applicability to the trucking industry, offers significant benefits to users and is widely available. Complete vehicles are not eligible, but individual components and systems are.
According to TWNA awards committee chairman James Menzies, “The committee was impressed by the DD15's use of turbo compounding, which captures previously-wasted energy and converts it into productive power, improving fuel efficiency and performance.” Mr. Menzies said with diesel prices reaching unprecedented heights in 2008, the committee considered the technological advancement worthy of the award.”
The turbo compounding system employs a second exhaust turbine downstream of the standard turbocharger. In addition to providing a more efficient source of exhaust back-pressure for the engine’s Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system, the secondary turbine’s output is hydrodynamically coupled to the engine’s drive gears.
The TWNA Technical Achievement Awards Committee included: Paul Abelson, Road King and Land Line; Tom Berg, Heavy Duty Trucking, John Baxter, Randall-Reilly Publishing; Peter Carter, Today’s Trucking; and James Menzies, Truck News.
Created in 1988, TWNA is a professional organization whose membership is composed of writers, editors, public relations specialists, marketing personnel and others involved in the business of creating or producing information related to the world of trucking.
The Technical Achievement Award, first presented in 1991, is sponsored by Grote. To be eligible, a product or service has to clearly exhibit technical innovation, have a wide applicability in the trucking industry, offer significant benefits and be widely available. While complete vehicles are not eligible, components and systems are.
The review process for 2008 began with more than a dozen candidates nominated by the press members of TWNA. From that group of candidates, eight finalists were selected for an in-depth review. The "Great Eight" finalists were Bendix’s Adaptive Cruise Control, Cummins Westport’s ISL G Natural Gas Engine, Detroit Diesel’s DD15 Engine, Eaton’s Hybrid-Electric System, Eaton’s Hydraulic Launch Assist System, Goodyear’s DuraSeal Trailer Tire, Great Dane’s CorroGuard Undercoating, and Meritor WABCO’s OnGuard Collision Avoidance System.
Using a point system based on each committee member’s ranking of the candidates, Detroit Diesel’s DD15 Engine scored a substantial lead to receive the honor of the 2008 TWNA Technical Achievement Award. Congratulations to all the finalists and special thanks to every member of TWNA's Tech Award Committee, as well as to those who took the time to suggest entries.
