subject: Naples Gmc Yukon Hybrid Among Cars To Benefit From New Green Patents [print this page] If you build it If you build it . . . they will give you a patent on it. Thats what General Motors is counting on as they seek to make every part of their vehicles stronger, lighter, faster, sleeker, greener, and prettier. Buick dealerships in Ft. Myers are looking forward to all the innovations stemming from this extensive engineering and research by GM.
Filing no less than 1,300 patents in 2009, GM is leading the way in revolutionizing the way we drive. This is also good news for the environment, as over half of the patents deal with eco-friendly innovations.
GM says these patents are helping the company accomplish world-class technological breakthroughs and Vice President of GM Global Research and Development Alan Taub added, The move toward electrification is requiring us to reinvent the DNA of the automobile, requiring massive amounts of innovation.
In a report from the firm Ocean Tomo, LLC on patent filings among the top auto manufacturers, General Motors was given kudos for developing green technologies. Naples GMC Yukon hybrid owners and drivers of other GM hybrid vehicles can appreciate the length to which GM has gone to develop green technology.
One of the most lauded developments was a new catalyst material to purify diesel and other lean-burning exhaust. Traditionally, catalysts use platinum which can be expensive. Through its research, GM found that perovskite, a calcium titanium oxide mineral discovered in the Ural mountains of Russia in 1839 and named for Russian scientist L.A. Perovski, can be substituted for the platinum.
The other good news is that we have it right here in the USA in Arkansas. Perovskite can meet the same level of performance as the platinum, but much more affordably. Your Buick dealership in Ft. Myers may be seeing it in the showroom before we know it.
Another genius move from GMs research teams is a new device which uses shape memory alloy, much like flexible frames on eyeglasses, which can be bent out of shape and reshaped with a bit of heat. This material can even keep its shape after being heated and reshaped unlimited times. Although this technology is not new, the way GM uses it is.
Researchers at GM used the material to build a recovery device to convert wasted engine heat into electric power for the cars systems such as lighting and entertainment. This can help create a higher fuel economy for GM vehicles and allow hybrids to be more efficient.
To understand exactly how this process works you may need to be a rocket scientist or a least have more background in chemistry, physics and engineering than I do. Anyway, GM is proud of it and the auto industry is impressed with it. Who knows? Maybe the Naples GMC Yukon hybrid vehicles will have this technology soon.
