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Kicking the can: Engine OEMs shed weight, optimize fuel economy with after treatment system redesign

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Updated Oct 4, 2017

Few things in trucking draw more scrutiny and scorn than a diesel engine’s after treatment system.

The adjustment from pre-Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) engines to the modern clean diesel era has been a painful – and somewhat expensive – one, but OEMs have worked to ease those woes through evolutions of engineering.

“System design isn’t mandated, just the end result,” says Ash Makki, product marketing manager for Volvo Trucks North America.

A transition to a single canister design, which allowed engineers to repackage aftertreatment components so that all the features from a dual canister setup could be placed into one, has cut almost 100 pounds out of Cummins’ system.

“You still have the same functionality but packaged much more efficiently in a smaller envelope,” says Jim Nachtman, heavy duty marketing manager for Navistar, who uses Cummins-designed Single Module system that is designed to be up to 60 percent smaller and 40 percent lighter than the previous EPA 2013 solution.

The weight savings for Mack’s single-unit ClearTech One and Volvo Trucks’ One Box is approximately 17 pounds compared to the previous two-unit solution.

“The reduction in weight is the result of combining the previously separate diesel particulate filter (DPF) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system into a single package,” says Scott Barraclough, Mack Trucks technology product manager.