ProCharger [1] centrifugal superchargers can be found on racecars and performance street machines far and wide. When selecting your preferred method of force-feeding your engine, the options are hotly debated. Centrifugal blowers have a unique set of advantages, and in this video we have the opportunity to experience the mechanics, care of digital technology.
Computer aided drafting programs like SolidWorks, Catia, AutoCAD, and other have grown in potential by leaps and bounds. For better or worse, the days of draftsmen slaving over actual drawing boards are long gone. The skill set of mechanical design and drafting certainly hasn’t gone anywhere, the medium has just changed.
In this dynamic assembly, we see a 3D model of a ProCharger blower. With the ability to disassemble and create cutaways with the click of a mouse it becomes much easier to visualize the “pros” of this design.
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As articulated in the video, minimizing heat soak and transfer is one of the key benefits to the self-contained design. Rather than sharing oil heated by the engine for lubrication, charge air mechanically bound to a hot exhaust-driven compressor, or sitting atop the engine (heat rises), the ProCharger unit acts independently of these heat sources.
Computer drafting isn’t the way of the future, it’s the present. Who knows what we will see down the line – virtual reality engine assemblies? Perhaps in the future we will be able to build a digital engine assembly to conduct virtual R&D, dyno testing, and engine bay fitment before a single dollar is spent on parts or labor.