Less than a year after starting production, Mahle (
www.mahle.com) has delivered its one millionth steel piston to car maker Renault.
The latter’s 1.5- and 1.6-litre diesel engines are the first diesel units for passenger cars world-wide to come equipped with steel pistons.
Mahle’s Monotherm pistons reduce engine friction, while improving thermo-dynamic characteristics and boosting fuel efficiency by some 3% (prior to being used in ‘series vehicles’, Mahle steel pistons were being used successfully on the race track).
Fully automatic assembly lines installed for the new product at the company’s Rottweil plant, in Germany, started production in November 2014. Production is also scheduled to start at a facility in Izmir, Turkey, before the end of the year. This means that Mahle will produce well over two million steel pistons in the coming year.
Mahle products are fitted in every second vehicle world-wide; the company’s components and systems are also used
for stationary and mobile off-road applications, as well in railroad, marine and aerospace.
In 2014, it generated sales of 9.94 billion euros, employing some 66,000 people at 170 locations in more than 30 countries.