International Truck and Engine Corp announced that its Brazilian subsidiary MWM International Motores and Brazil-based supplier Tupy will provide compacted-graphite iron (CG Iron) cylinder blocks for the new MaxxForce 11 and MaxxForce 13 big-bore diesel engines.
Tupy will cast the advanced CG Iron cylinder blocks at its plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and MWM International will machine the blocks at its Santo Amaro plant, also in Sao Paulo. The machined blocks will be shipped from South America to International's new engine plant in Huntsville AL, where the MaxxForce big-bore engines will be assembled.
In late 2006, Huntsville was selected as the site for the assembly of the new engines. Production in Huntsville will begin in spring 2008. Initial engines will be partially assembled in Germany and finished and trimmed in Huntsville.
Created by a precise procedure that involves adding magnesium to molten gray iron at a specific point in the casting process, CG Iron offers advantages over traditional gray iron. CG Iron is 70 percent stronger and 40 percent stiffer, and provides double the fatigue limit of gray iron. In addition, CG Iron's molecular structure resists fractures.