Quote:
JimFlat6 said:
Fritz, theres no mumbo jumbo about it. Audi is milling engine blocks perfectly in 181 only seconds.

http://www.germancarfans.com/news.cfm/newsid/2040916.001/audi/1.html

Read the article, you might learn something.



Jím, I read the article, and what I learnt was that you had mis-read it - which was coincidentally just what I had expected.

The article does not claim that Audi completely mills cylinder blocks in 181 seconds as you have understood. What it does say is that Audi has developed a process to laser-treat the bore surfaces of its cast iron diesel engine blocks after they have been conventionally machined and honed beforehand. Note the sentence: "When the UV laser pulses hit the surface of the cylinder bore, which has been pre-machined to a minimal roughness by honing .......".

This additional process, which takes 184 s for a 3 liter 6 cylinder block, is meant to improve the surface of the bores to reduce friction and oil consumption and improve durability. There is no mention of production-cost reduction, improved machining precision in terms of tolerances, as I remember you implying in an earlier post.

If you would like to give me a link to the web site promoting the use of "forged" water-cooled cylinder heads, I will happily check to see what you had misunderstood in that instance.