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What Training Does a Diesel Retrofitting Expert Need?

Diesel engines are very popular among automobile makers due to their reliability and efficiency. The majority of trucks and off-road vehicles use diesel as a fuel, but along with advantages, diesel engines have significant disadvantages.

Diesel exhaust contains a lot of extremely harmful nitrogen oxides and toxic particular matters. Therefore there is a need to develop new engines for diesels to avoid harmful compounds in exhaust and at the same time use all the advantages of such fuel. European standards to engine exhaust became stricter, hence automobile makers have to develop the systems of exhaust cleaning or find other ways of decreasing its harm to natural environment. The process of developing new engines and exhaust systems, adding new parts to it and improving existing ones is called retrofitting. Certainly, if we're talking about diesel engines, their perfection is known as diesel retrofitting.

Today large automobile making concerns need to retrofit their diesel engines constantly and, obviously, they need to hire specialists in diesel retrofitting to make diesel systems adequate to European exhaust guidelines, named Euro standards. Now automobile concerns introduce new systems to meet ecological guidelines of Euro VI, which is expected to appear in 2013-2014. For example, concern Volvo has already declared compliance of their vehicles with the requirements of Euro VI. They don't say exactly, what technologies were developed by Volvo's engineers, however they could use SCR (silicon-controlled rectifier or semiconductor-controlled rectifier) and EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) technologies.

These new technologies were probably developed by the diesel retrofitters of the concern. It's just an individual example of diesel retrofitters' duties. Professionals in such a field can work in research labs or for giant corporations, or invent new techniques solo, to patent the invention and sell patent to the automobile corporations. If the invention is really useful and new, it can be bought for huge amount of money. On the basis of retrofitters duties we can suggest major in physics and mathematics for future retrofitters.

Certainly, each university offers its own courses and the curriculum can be different. However, future retrofitters should be interested in mathematical sciences and be good at mechanics. There is also a need of chemistry and physics. Besides, diesel retrofitters should be good in analytics and have excellent logical and creative thinking. But the most important thing is to love your job and be proud of it.

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