DENSO Corp. has developed the new Tandem Solenoid (TS) starter. The starter restarts the engine 1.5 seconds faster than the company’s previous models.
DENSO says the TS starter uses the world’s first mechanism to separately control the forward shift of the pinion gear and the motor rotation. This allows for a quicker restart. It is also designed specifically for stop/start systems.
“With the new starter, the pinion gear shift and motor rotation can be separately controlled, depending on the engine speed, and the engine can restart while it is still rotating. This shortens the waiting time when restarting and allows for a smoother engine feel at start-up,” says Masahiko Miyaki, senior executive director of DENSO’s Electric Systems Business Group.
To start the engine, starters shift the pinion gear forward to mesh with the engine ring gear to transmit the rotational force of the starter motor through the pinion gear. The conventional stop/start system starter is not capable of restarting when the engine is rotating – or while the engine is coasting after the vehicle is stopped. Because of this lag time, it is possible the driver may wait up to 1.5 seconds when restarting the engine after the engine is stopped.
With the TS starter, if the engine is rotating fast, the motor is first energized to increase the pinion gear speed. Then the pinion gear is shifted forward when the rotation of the ring gear and pinion gear are close. When the engine is turning slowly enough for the two gears to be connected, the pinion gear is first moved forward, and then the motor is powered.
For more information, go to www.globaldenso.com.
