Horse Powertrain opens gravity casting plant in Curitiba, Brazil, to make cylinder heads for H10 and H13 engines
Horse Powertrain has opened a R$200mn (~€35mn) cylinder-head casting facility at its Curitiba plant in Brazil, able to cast 210,000 aluminum heads a year for its flex-fuel engines.
- R$200mn (~€35mn)
- 210,000
- 35%
- R$100mn
What Happened
Horse Powertrain has opened a new casting facility for engine cylinder heads at its plant in Curitiba, Brazil, an investment of R$200mn (~€35mn) in its Brazilian production footprint. The facility can cast 210,000 aluminum cylinder heads per annum for the turbocharged, gasoline-ethanol flex fuel engines built at the site: the 1.0-liter HORSE H10 and the 1.3-liter HORSE H13. Their delta-shaped cylinder heads help keep the engine low-mass, reduce its center of gravity and improve thermal management. The engines are intended for passenger vehicle markets in Brazil and across South America. The opening ceremony was attended by Matias Giannini, CEO of Horse Powertrain, along with company executives and government officials.
210,000cylinder heads
Annual production capacity of the new casting facility at Curitiba, Brazil.
- Relies solely on the downward flow of molten aluminum; the smoother inflow gives a more consistent spread of material with fewer air pockets, increasing strength and durability
- Also currently employed at Curitiba; the new gravity process is compared against these existing methods
The Curitiba site is Horse Powertrain's first global use of a gravity casting process. To scale the capability efficiently, the Curitiba team developed a fully integrated aluminum melting and transportation process from furnace to mold. That minimizes the amount of heat and metal wasted during casting and maximizes the service life of the molds. As a result, the new process reduces embedded CO2 emissions per cylinder head by 35% compared with existing injection casting processes.
- 35% lower embedded CO2 emissions per cylinder head from the new gravity casting process
- A plant commitment to use 98% recycled aluminum
- Zero-landfill certification for the plant
The casting facility investment is first announced, accompanied by a R$100mn investment to expand Curitiba's production capacity for HORSE H13 engines
Horse Powertrain opens the new casting facility in Curitiba at a ceremony attended by CEO Matias Giannini, company executives and government officials
“Our new gravity casting facility marks an important milestone in the history of our operations in Brazil. Horse Powertrain's Brazilian plant is recognized across South America for the quality of its products, and its leadership in delivering state-of-the-art powertrains that use gasoline-ethanol flex fuels. This new investment signals how important we consider Curitiba, Brazil, and South America to our company's future through localizing production of key components that are specially adapted to the needs of regional automakers.”
Why this matters
The investment localizes production of cylinder heads for the H10 and H13 engines assembled at Curitiba, a component Horse says is adapted to the needs of regional automakers. It is also the company's first use of gravity casting anywhere in the world and cuts embedded CO2 per cylinder head by 35%, which touches the Curitiba workforce, local suppliers and South American vehicle buyers.
Terms in This Story
- Cylinder head
- The component that caps the engine's cylinders, closing the combustion chambers and handling intake, exhaust and cooling.
- Gravity casting
- A metal-forming method in which molten metal fills a mold purely by flowing downward under its own weight, without being forced in under pressure.
- Flex fuel
- An engine designed to run on more than one fuel blend; here, gasoline and ethanol.
- Embedded CO2 emissions
- The emissions generated in making a component, before that component is ever used.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.