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FPT Industrial launches new natural gas Cursor 13 engine

New Cursor 13 natural gas engine aimed at the long-haul truck market, boasts up to 460hp

 

FPT Industrial, a division of the giant CNH Industrial group, unveiled its new Cursor 13 natural engine engine in Turin, Italy, on October 30.

Already, the new Cursor 13 engine, which boasts up to 460hp at 1900rpm and torque up to 2000Nm at 1100rpm, has found a home in the Iveco Stralis, with a range before refuelling of more than 1500km.

Pierpaolo Biffali, head of product engineering at FPT Industrial, says when the company’s Eco Friendly Taskforce set about designing the engine, its obvious benchmark was the diesel.

“To make natural gas appealing, we needed to provide performance, reliability and total cost of ownership equivalent to diesel, or possibly better,” Biffali says.

The Cursor 13 is a mono-fuel 100 percent natural gas which FPT says is an easy-to-use solution for end-users, since it can run with CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) starting from “methane number” 70 and bio-methane. The bio-methane solution is said to be capable of reducing CO2 emission levels near zero.

Biffali says one of the solutions FPT used to overcome the high running temperatures of the typical natural gas engine was its high resistance cast iron alloy, while the turbocharger is a steel turbine housing with water-cooled bearings. He also says the lighter and more compact package means more room for gas tanks and higher range autonomy.

Pierpaolo Biffali, head of product engineering at FPT Industrial, during the Cursor 13 NG launch in Turin, Italy

“A lighter system means more payload available for the truck,” he says.

“And to respond to requests for more power, we have introduced new injectors to manage the high fuel flow rate that the engine is requesting.

“These features all allow for very high performance, but optimising the fuel consumption at the same time.

“For the combustion management, one more key factor is the coupling of the engine with the transmission system.”

Biffali says in conjunction with the automated gearbox, it will mean a timely change of gears, resulting in driving comfort and vehicle agility, but also in substantial fuel savings for the customer.

“The perfect integration between the automated gearbox and the engine is guaranteed by a dedicated stoichiometric ratio control method that we have developed in house that focuses on gearshift transience.”

In short, FPT Industrial’s lean technology avoids diesel and the AdBlue adoption, granting a ligher package for more payload.

In addition, according to FPT, the new Cursor 13 NG engine is the best alternative with low climate impact for long-haul operations, since it has been developed to meet high demands on performance and low operating costs without compromises on durability.

However, it is understood that it will be a few years yet before the Cursor 13 NG finds its way into an Iveco truck in Australia.

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