A consortium consisting of UK start-up Lontra, Ricardo and the Ford Motor Company has been awarded funding by the UK Technology Strategy Board to demonstrate Lontra’s Blade Supercharger for a Ford vehicle demonstrator.
The Blade Supercharger features a variable flow compressor that can meet the boosting requirements of heavily downsized engines whether they are petrol or diesel. It includes a variable port design and enables precise matching of the boost requirements of the engine through the cycle.
The Supercharger is based on the Blade Compressor, a technology that has been worked on since 2004. Prototypes have so far demonstrated a 20 per cent efficiency gain compared to traditional compressors and the innovative port design allows application requirements to be changed while a constant speed is maintained.
Grant support from the Technology Strategy Board will help develop the supercharger for Ford’s engine package with Lontra and Ricardo engineers to work together to implement the project.
