BMW Group
Press
02/2000
Page 2
BMW Hosting the Year 2000
SAE World Congress in Detroit
Detroit
BMW is becoming the first non-American car maker to host the SAE
World Congress. Taking on the leading function of the General Chair-person at the year 2000 World Congress, Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Ziebart, Member of the Board of BMW for Development, will be opening this largest conference of automotive engineers in the world in Detroit on 6 March 2000. “BMWis very proud of the honour to be able to make
such a significant contribution to this most outstanding international
event in automotive development”, stated Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Ziebart on
the occasion of the opening ceremony.

Held each year, the SAE World Congress is the largest international
event focusing on technology of the future in the automotive industry
held this year under the motto: “Adding Value to Life Through Technology and Advanced Mobility”. Expected to attract several thousand engineers and decision-makers in the international automobile industry, the World Congress held in the Detroit Cobo Hall in Michigan will continue until 9 March.

The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) has some 80,000 members
the world over, mainly engineers, but also managers in industry,
university professors, and students. No other association anywhere
in the world sets as many standards in automotive and aerospace
technologies. The SAE conducts research programmes, organises
congresses and further training seminars, promotes the cause of
driving safety, and seeks to help preserve the world’s resources.
The awards and prizes given by the SAE founded in 1905 are among
the most coveted throughout the entire industry.

Acting this year as the Congress host, BMW is very happy to see this
additional confirmation of the Company’s high international standard
in technology. This is also reflected by the technical papers engineers
from the BMW Group will be presenting at the SAE World Congress,
the individual subjects covering virtually the entire area of automotive
technology.

BMW Group
Press
02/2000
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Focusing on safety: byteflight sets new standards in electronics
byteflight is a high-security bus system developed by BMW and setting new standards in terms of transmission rates, reliability, and security free of any interference. Comparable with the nervous system in the human body, byteflight uses glassfibre optics to ensure fast, correct and reliable transmission of data within the automobile. Operating at a data rate of 10 Mbit/sec, byteflight is able to handle approximately 10 times the data volume otherwise processed by a CAN-bus. This is a great benefit, for example, in airbag technology adapted in this way even more precisely to individual crash and collision requirements.

Optical transmission by way of fibres, which forms the foundation of
the byteflight concept, has the big advantage in data bus systems of
totally avoiding any electromagnetic interference on the transmission
route. Fully integrated and low-cost electronic components are already
available for establishing a complete, all-round data bus system.

The first regular application of byteflight technology in the automobile
will be launched by BMW within the next two years, comprising both
passive safety and body functions. Intelligent seat occupancy detector controlling the airbag
The seat occupancy detector developed to an even higher standard
will soon also be using byteflight technology. Incorporating a special
antenna, the system is able to determine what is on the seat. It does
this by measuring the influence of the body or object involved on
the antenna’s electrical field, thus distinguishing reliably between a
human being, a bag of potatoes, or, say, a child seat with a baby. Then,
proceeding from this information, the system decides whether the air-bag has to be activated or not. byteflight and the new seat occupancy detector are part of the ISIS Integrated Safety Information System to be introduced in future. The idea in this case is to transmit safety-relevant data with maximum speed, allowing each unit within the system to take the data it needs for further processing and ongoing transmission to the other units.

Focusing on engine technology: fully variable valve control
One of BMW's key skills is drivetrain technology. And now BMW is
taking a quantum leap in engine technology with two developments
offering an unprecedented potential in masterminding the gas cycle:
This is the introduction of mechanically fully variable valve drive, a
further development of double-VANOS, as well as electromechanical
valve drive. Taking a different approach in each case, these two tech-nologies are able to control not only the time, but also the volume of air intake, without the usual losses suffered on the throttle butterfly.
This makes it possible to cut back the fuel consumption of the petrol
engine to a level previously only the diesel engine was able to achieve.

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The integrated measuring system for determining the quality of the
combustion process provides a new, even more sophisticated engine
management function. Inter alia, this technology will soon give us the
possibility to optimise the ignition and fuel injection on each individual
cylinder from one working cycle to the next, reducing both fuel consumption and exhaust emissions and improving running refinement as well as the engine's performance.

Further progress on the direct-injection petrol engine

Direct fuel injection is able to reduce the consumption of a petrol
engine by 15-20 per cent. But it also has disadvantages: When operating in the lean burn mode with a surplus of hydrogen, the engine cannot use the usual three-way catalytic converter in order to clean emissions. This creates a need for new concepts such as reservoir catalyst technology in order to maintain the standards required in future – but again, this kind of technology can only run on fuel with ultra-low sulphur. The key to combining low fuel consumption and equally low exhaust emissions therefore lies in the combustion system for which BMW’s engineers have developed various concepts.

A further option for improving output and torque, fuel eocnomy and
emission management on the direct-injection petrol engine is turbo-charging. The crucial factor here, however, is the relationship between the turbocharger and the compression ratio in the engine as such. BMW’s engineers have determined in this context that high compression offers advantages under part load, low compression under full load.

BMW is developing a petrol-based fuel cell

A major development by BMW in fuel cell technology is the chemical
battery able to generate electric power out of petrol. The projected
task of this fuel cell currently being developed in cooperation with
Delphi, the leading US supplier in this area, is to supply the on-board
network of a car with electrical power able to provide new functions
such as operation and use of the air conditioning even when the
engine is switched off.

This new fuel cell is the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell or SOFC for short.
Following this principle, hydrogen is converted into electrical power
at a temperature of approximately 800°C by means of circonium oxide
and ceramic electrodes after the petrol has evaporated and hydrogen
has been recovered in a reformer also operating at a temperature of
roughly 800°C. Compared with the PEM cell generally still given preference today (and which, at least in theory, can also run on hydrogen generated out of petrol), this new process requires only two instead of five intermediate steps and thus offers a correspondingly higher overall standard of efficiency.

Focusing on production technology: new processes for new materials

Modern materials and their processing technologies will be taking
on increasing significance in the design and construction of vehicles
in future. Even today, BMW uses high-strength steel for load-bearing
structures, aluminium for chassis and suspension components, and
modern plastics for the interior and engine ancillaries. These technologies are being further developed by BMW in order to combine even better features for the automobile with even lower weight, and in future generations of vehicles BMW will once again be the pioneer in the use and application of alternative materials.

One example is magnetic moulding, where BMW sees a great potential
in the production of drive components. The magnetic moulding
process was developed in the ‘60s, but has so far not proven successful in the large-scale standard production of vehicles. Growing use of new materials such as aluminium, magnesium and carbon fibre-reinforced plastics nevertheless calls for new production processes where this technology may well be of interest. Magnetic moulding possible with all materials able to conduct electricity is of particular interest in combining different materials with one another. As an example, it provides the option to combine prefabricated aluminium
and/or carbon-fibre components with one another to form a propeller
shaft, which is not possible with conventional pressing or welding
technology.

Focusing on active safety: Integrated Chassis Management

Ongoing development of electronic systems for improving active
safety centres around one essential component on all vehicles: the
brakes. Proceeding from DSC Dynamic Stability Control, BMW is
developing EBM Electronic Brake Management with the objective
to create system architecture combining both the hardware and
software of all existing brake components and control systems and
opening up the door for other functions.

This would also allow the creation of a genuine, fully-fledged chassis
management system comprising, inter alia, full control of damper
forces, yaw compensation, and steering functions. Further combined
with the options and features of DSC refined to an even higher standard,

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this would lead to the development of ICM Integrated Chassis
Management capitalising in full on all options to control the longitudinal and transverse dynamics of the suspension and enhance both active safety and driving comfort to a new standard never seen before.

Greater active safety by determining surface friction

To give the driver and safety systems such as DSC clear information
on road surface conditions, BMW's researchers have developed a
new frictional value sensor. The data provided in this way may be of
crucial significance in avoiding accidents particularly in an emergency
situation. Operating on the principle that water has specific absorption
characteristics, the sensor uses infra-red wavelength measurement
to reliably determine the thickness of a film of water or whether
there is ice or snow on the road. Subsequently processing this data,
the system can then inform the driver at an early point of any unusual
risk of the car swerving or skidding, ABS or DSC serving to ensure an
optimised control strategy in the case of acute danger.

ACE: newstability control on Land Rover vehicles

The core feature of the new suspension technology to be admired on
the Land Rover Discovery II is ACE Active Cornering Enhancement
stability control developed for the first time for an offroader and combining hydraulic operation with electronic management. The objective in this development was to create a system for driving a large offroader like a “normal” passenger car. In bends ACE limits body sway to a minimum while still allowing the high degree of axle displacement so important above all on rough terrain.

BMW’s energy strategy:
small production run of hydrogen-drive 7 Series saloons

Developing the automobile of tomorrow means in particular developing an alternative drive concept. BMW has taken this task even
further, creating a comprehensive energy strategy based on two key
requirements:

 Complete avoidance of emissions

 Use of renewable sources of energy

Liquefied hydrogen definitely meets these requirements best, which is
why BMW endorses the use of hydrogen as the ideal fuel of the future,
receiving more and more international support in this process.
The intermediate step to be taken in the transitional phase is to use
liquefied natural gas which in its properties comes very close to
hydrogen. Natural gas is the most environmentally friendly source
of fossil energy, it can be used directly in the car without requiring
any conversion, and it is free of toxic effects. This gives natural gas
fundamental advantages over methanol which BMW sees in a very

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critical light in particular due to its aggressiveness as a corrosive
agent as well as its extremely high level of toxicity. Precisely this is why BMW became the first European carmaker to start regular production of natural gas cars in 1995.

This year BMW will be presenting hydrogen technology inter alia in
the context of the worldwide CleanEnergy project at the EXPO 2000
World Fair in Hanover. Acting as the system leader, BMW will cooperate with international partners in preparing the complete system ranging from recovery and distribution all the way to the practical use of this future source of energy for its implementation in the market. As the first step in this direction BMW is building a small number of 7 Series saloons with hydrogen drive, thus becoming the first manufacturer in the world to run CO 2 -free vehicles in practice.

For questions please contact:
Corporate Communications
Rudolf Probst,
Product and Technology, Technology and Innovation
Telephone: +49 89 382-22088,
Fax: +49 89 382-27563
Thomas Steffes,
Product and Technology, Research and Development
Telephone: +49 89 382-24697,
Fax: +49 89 382-27563
website: www.press.bmwgroup.com
e-mail: presse@bmw.de