Nov 23 2004
BMW's most powerful motorcycle ever boasts cast aluminium cylinder heads and engine blocks made by Hydro Aluminium Mandl & Berger in Austria.
Earlier this fall, BMW launched its new K 1200 S - the most powerful motorcycle the company has ever built. The high-performing machine is powered by a 167 bhp four-cylinder series engine. And Hydro is right there.
The K 1200 S project posed some new challenges for the BMW and Mandl & Berger development team. First, it was BMW's most sportive motorcycle with a crosswise built-in engine and with the first-ever engine block produced by the Rotacast process.
The Mandl & Berger plant, based in Linz, spent more then three years working on the project with BMW, during which cylinder head and engine block with an integrated alternator and starter housing and processes were developed in preparation for series production. The production of cylinder bore surfaces proved to be particularly demanding. In order to save weight, there was no question of employing the often-used technique of grey-iron liners.
To ensure the required quality, the bore surfaces that BMW selected were produced by means of state-of-the-art technology using chill moulds.
Mandl & Berger's expert team succeeded, by means of design and casting optimization, in achieving the required casting quality even when using a sand-based liner core with an integrated water jacket.
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