Making Diesel burn clean

Diesel engines are clearly becoming customer favorites. Automotive Industries spoke to Bill Pantazis, CEO and president of Carbon Zapp about how he sees the future of his company and diesel engine technology.

Carbon Zapp was started by Pantazis in 1989 in Athens, Greece. He has built up the company to a multi-location manufacturing conglomerate. Automotive Industries spoke to him about how he sees the future of his company and diesel engine technology.
AI: Where does Carbon Zapp’s main competition come from?
Pantazis: Our competition up to today came from equipment manufacturers for cleaning and testing gasoline fuel injectors. These manufacturers are mainly located in England, Australia, and Italy while lately they are also coming from China. By presenting the New Diesel Tech machine, we are getting into the great market of Diesels, where we will face competition from many manufacturers that have started with testing benches 50 or more years ago. Once more, we are not trying to compete with them or their equipment, since we have innovated and manufactured a machine that has no competition yet in the global market.
Carbon Zapp recently launched its Diesel Tech CTU-1100e. The machine can test and clean common-rail diesel injectors (CRDI), as well as conventional diesel injectors. This marks a breakthrough in the servicing of CRDi systems as it is a compact unit, which provides a complete testing and thorough (not only the nozzle) cleaning system.
AI: Where do you see the bulk of your company’s growth coming from in the next five years?
Pantazis: We believe that major volumes of sales for the next five years will be coming from Eastern European countries, Russia, Middle-East and South Africa. All these countries have a lot of potential for growth in this market as they have minimal investment in equipment for emissions control and servicing. Our aim is to create a strong sales network in all these countries. Within the past 10 years, we have created a name that is based on quality equipment, customer service and support. We do our best to keep it that way and always satisfy our customers.
AI: Your Company is focusing on diesel engine injector technology – why?
Pantazis: Today, all major automobile manufacturers have focused on developing their diesel injection system technology to better meet emissions standards, performance and optimum engine efficiency. Since this market is up to increasing vastly, our company has decided to focus on providing the best solution for its customer’s and their needs.
AI: How do you think diesel engine technology will evolve over the next decade?
Pantazis: We believe that Diesel injector technology will be developing every year in the future. Piezo unit injection technology will be the main focus of most manufacturers as it allows quieter combustion, reduced pollutant emissions, lower fuel consumption, fine fuel atomization resulting in higher thermodynamic efficiency and increased torque per liter. We shall see an increase in operating pressures for the next 10 years and after this period I believe the manufactures will focus on lower pressures, much closer to the concept of Gasoline Direct Injection systems that will reduce the system cost significantly.
AI: Do you see alternative fuels ever posing a challenge to diesel?
Pantazis: We see alternatives fuel challenging Diesel but not very soon. I believe that we will actually see more of this at least 10 years from today. There are a lot of infrastructure changes that need to be prepared for the industry to change to alternative fuels.
AI: Will Carbon Zapp ever get into manufacturing machines for alternative energy run vehicles?
Pantazis: We here at Carbon Zapp always strive to manufacture and provide the best possible solutions to our customers and their market needs. Part of our R&D is already researching in this field. When the market needs a machine for servicing newer alternative energy systems, we will innovate once more and provide the appropriate solution to the future service center.