I have some news about transmissions and a story too. I remember one joker calling them "transcriptions" and thinking about it, that doesn't seem to be all that bad a name. After all, doesn't the transmission transcribe the power from the engine into something that the differential can use? Well, enough of that. The news is that Getrag is building a new facility to build DSG units in Slovakia and the GM-Ford six-speed automatic which will be delivered very soon.
Getrag is usually thought of as a manufacturer of manual transmissions. BMW and other European manufacturers have used them for years. They also supply manuals to Nissan, Ford and General Motors. They've done research and predict that the dual-clutch "automated manual" type of transmission, now used by Audi (and manufactured by Borg Warner) will be 29% of the market in 2015. This is a big shift in market considering that in 2005, it was 1% of the market in Europe only and essentially non-existent elsewhere.
The company is constructing a facility in Slovakia costing $415 million to build a new family of six- and seven-speed "DCT" (dual-clutch transmission) transmissions. They use "DCT" rather than the Audi name "DSG".
They say the new transmission is something like two transmissions in one. One of them has all the odd-numbered gears with its own clutch, and the other has the even-numbered gears. That allows the electronic controller to select the next gear, then engage it quickly and smoothly when needed. The only "guess" the controller needs to make is to figure out whether the driver wants to upshift or downshift. The other design consideration with a DCT is that it works well for a front-drive vehicle, but is wide (being two transmissions side by side) for a rear-drive car.
There will be five versions of their transmissions based on four different architectures. The MPS6 and SPS6 are front-transverse units with six speeds. They all share the same hydraulics, electronics, and the same clutch. The other ones are the DCT477, which is a seven-speed rear-drive design for high powered cars (516 lb-ft of torque) and a smaller DCT436, which also is a seven-speed design, but for lower power cars (443 lb-ft of torque). Then there is the DCT250, which is a six-speed front-drive unit using dry clutches that allows 184 lb-ft of torque.
The units really are flexible in design as they use wet or dry clutches and use hydraulic or electromechanical actuation. The launch behavior is in the control software and is customized by the car manufacturer. They can allow high engine speeds of up to 9000 rpm.
That new plant in Slovakia will be the one making the front-drive units. The rear-drive units will be built in the existing Getrag plant in Neuenstein, Germany. The plan is to build these transmissions until 2011, when the next generation transmission will start production.
Now what's this about GM and Ford cooperating on building a modern six-speed automatic? Strange as it may seem, both companies really needed a modern six-speed automatic and somehow they got together to design and build them. It was called "engineering with the enemy" and there never was any bloodshed during the project!
How could rivals Ford and GM ever get together to cooperate on a transmission design? The answer is "no comment", but rumor has it that a top executive at each of the companies happened to be talking with the other and mentioned transmissions. Their social discussion ended up in an agreement to look into a cooperative venture. That brought out the lawyers. Another big surprise was a joint memorandum of understanding between the two companies in February 2002. That brought the engineers together. There was early agreement that neither company would "own" any part of the transmission, all of the milestones would be jointly held, and not insignificantly that all GM presentations would read "the Ford-GM transmission" and all Ford presentations would read "the GM-Ford transmission". The result would be the GM 6T70 and the Ford 6F55. The design specs for the transmission are a 315 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque capacity.
While early on there was some engineering rivalry, the team settled down pretty quickly and recognized that a state-of-the-art design was needed. It was to be for front-drive and all-wheel-drive cars, and be a compact package and increased efficiency. While the two companies were already on a similar design path, the details were quire different. Expertise was drawn from both companies to form teams for torque converter, gear sets, clutches, pump-filter, structures, controls, and NVH. Note that "testing" was missing because it was decided early that final testing would be done separately by both companies in their normal processes, but with shared results.
One rather small difference, too, was that the shift control would be different for each transmission. GM's transmission would have it inside the case, but Ford's would be outside and integrated with the powertrain control unit.
An area that went to a single facility was Ford's rapid prototyping facility in Dearborn. GM recognized that they didn't have an equal to that. Purchasing and supplier quality was a joint effort to the benefit of the project. Suppliers were never allowed to play one company against the other.
The interchange of CAD/CAE software was interesting. The companies used different systems, but are both now owned by the same company. Due to a quirk in the process, Ford's part numbering system was used, much to the chagrin of GM management. But even then, the GM people preferred Ford's "smart numbering" system.
The cooperation will continue through the life of the product. There is no end date as long as the transmission is in production. And speaking of production, the effort predicts about 2 million of them built a year, with 1.2 million to GM and 700,000 to Ford. The first GM product to get the transmission is the Saturn Aura and Ford's is the Edge.
The question remains, however, about the current six-speed automatic that Ford uses in the Five Hundred (among other models). This is a ZF unit that is built in a plant that was constructed adjacent to Ford's assembly plant for the cars. Are they the odd man out now?
This kind of cooperation isn't all that unusual these days. There is the cooperation between GM, DaimlerChrysler, and BMW on hybrid powertrain components. We have yet to see the result of this. Also there is the cooperation between Volkswagen and DaimlerChrysler for a minivan for U.S. VW dealers. That is on track, but yet to be seen too.
