What is Turbocharger

In simple terms, a turbocharger is a radial fan pump that contains a gas compressor and a turbine. It is used to create forced-induction in an internal combustion engine. Similar to a supercharger, a turbocharger is designed to cause more mass of air to go into the engine. This causes the engine to have more power. The difference between a turbocharger and a supercharger is that the turbocharger’s compressor is run by a turbine which runs on the engine’s exhaust gases.

You may be wondering where the turbocharger came from and how it came to be. A look at the history of the turbocharger takes all of this into consideration. A Swiss engineer named Alfred Buchi is responsible for inventing the turbocharger. In 1905, Buchi’s patented turbocharger was first put to you. By the 1920’s, locomotives and diesel ships were starting to run on turbochargers. It would be nearly 10 years later before the non-diesel turbocharged engine came to the market and even then it was in the aviation industry.

Sanford Moss was the first to use a turbocharger in an aircraft engine. The use of turbochargers continued to increase but was not formally introduced to the automobile engines until around 1962 by General Motors. Interestingly enough, it although today virtually all diesel autos have turbocharged engines, this was not the case before 1978, when Mercedez-Benz was responsible for introducing the first turbocharger in their 300SD turbodiesel.

The history of the turbocharger would not be complete without reference to the strides in performance that are associated with the arena of competition cars. The Indianapolis 500 was the scene and the first auto racer held the lead for 100 miles during that race in 1952. By the late 70s, the Turbo Era had begun and it was not just fashionable to have your cold air intake keeping your turbocharger nice and cool.

The horsepower (hp) has continued to increase over the years and today the top competitors are using turbocharged engines that can max out at 2000 cc, which, by the way, are the preferred power source for the brightest and best racers in rallying.

Now that you have some of the history of the turbocharger, it is also important to understand its purpose. The purpose of a turbocharger is to create better quality in the size-to-output when it comes to the size of the engine. A regular engine in an automobile creates low pressure by drawing air into the intake valves. A turbocharger increases the pressure so that more air flows and additional power and torque are possible from the engine.

The turbocharger operates today in many vehicles, particularly those with diesel engines. The use of the turbocharger creates high performance and quality for competition car racing enthusiasts as well as non-racing car owners who simply enjoy the added power beneath the hood. Gone are the days of overheated engines that simply don’t perform. Today’s turbochargers set many of the standards in power from racing such as the Formula One to your own personal power achievements.

Turbocharger
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