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WINDSOR, ON, Canada – Much has been written about the wonders of the flat-plane crankshaft in the ’16 Ford Shelby GT350R and GT350 Mustang engines, but the real heroes behind the high-revving 5.2L V-8 are the production engineers at Ford’s Essex Engine Plant here.
After all, without the Plasma Transferred Wire Arc process – PTWA for short – there wouldn’t be an additional 0.2L of displacement in the new V-8, which allows for larger intake and exhaust valves, all of which play a big part in producing 526 hp and 429 lb.-ft. (582 Nm) of torque from the naturally aspirated engine.
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How PTWA Works
Using PTWA, Ford replaces typically heavier iron cylinder sleeves with a thin coating of iron/iron-oxide material that is atomized and sprayed on the cylinder walls by a hydrogen-argon gas-plasma arc-welding torch spinning at 400 rpm as it is robotically guided into each cylinder, explains Tim Beyer, technical specialist-global advanced manufacturing engineering.
The welder, fed by a continuous strand of 0.0625-in. (1.5-mm) iron wire delivered at a rate of 252 ft. (77 m) per minute, applies the coating in several layers in about 2 minutes per bore, Beyer says.
After the material is applied, it is allowed to cool and then is machined and honed to a finished thickness as thin as 0.004 in. (0.10 mm), compared to 0.08 in. (2 mm) required for an iron cylinder insert.
Quote:
WINDSOR, ON, Canada – Much has been written about the wonders of the flat-plane crankshaft in the ’16 Ford Shelby GT350R and GT350 Mustang engines, but the real heroes behind the high-revving 5.2L V-8 are the production engineers at Ford’s Essex Engine Plant here.
After all, without the Plasma Transferred Wire Arc process – PTWA for short – there wouldn’t be an additional 0.2L of displacement in the new V-8, which allows for larger intake and exhaust valves, all of which play a big part in producing 526 hp and 429 lb.-ft. (582 Nm) of torque from the naturally aspirated engine.
...
How PTWA Works
Using PTWA, Ford replaces typically heavier iron cylinder sleeves with a thin coating of iron/iron-oxide material that is atomized and sprayed on the cylinder walls by a hydrogen-argon gas-plasma arc-welding torch spinning at 400 rpm as it is robotically guided into each cylinder, explains Tim Beyer, technical specialist-global advanced manufacturing engineering.
The welder, fed by a continuous strand of 0.0625-in. (1.5-mm) iron wire delivered at a rate of 252 ft. (77 m) per minute, applies the coating in several layers in about 2 minutes per bore, Beyer says.
After the material is applied, it is allowed to cool and then is machined and honed to a finished thickness as thin as 0.004 in. (0.10 mm), compared to 0.08 in. (2 mm) required for an iron cylinder insert.