NASHVILLE, TN – The Cummins X15 Efficiency engine series has been awarded the Truck Writers of North America’s (TWNA) 2016 Technical Achievement Award.

The award was announced Mar. 1 during an awards luncheon at the annual ATA Technology & Maintenance Council meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The engine won for its advanced combustion design that includes a little-used Atkinson Cycle, and other features,” says Jim Park, chairman of the TWNA awards committee.

“It beat out four other finalists who had previously topped a pool of 15 candidates for the award,” says Park, adding that the TWNA panellists picked their candidates from the products and services they observed over the previous year.

In order to be recognized by the TWNA, a candidate is required to display technical innovation and offer a wide spread use for those in the trucking industry, in addition to offering significant operating benefits.

The panel of industry journalists from Canada and the U.S. debated and voted over a period of several weeks.

This year, the annual award was named after Jim Winsor for the first time. Winsor wrote as a truck journalist for 50 years, and was a TWNA member active in the Technology and Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Associations. Passing away in 2015, Winsor was long known, respected and loved in the trucking industry.

“Cummins is honored to receive the Technical Achievement Award for our 2017 X15 Efficiency series, and it is especially relevant to us that this recognition comes from truck industry writers, many of whom have experienced the enhanced driveability and responsive performance of the X15 engine first hand,” said Tim Proctor, technical leader of the Cummins X15 engine system.

Proctor said the 14.9-litre diesel engine offers an increased three percent in fuel efficiency over the preceding model, the ISX15, through improvements to air-handling, combustion efficiency, reduced parasitic losses and advanced electronics, in addition maintenance should cost 40 percent less than previous engines over five years.

The ISX15 was redesigned by Cummins to meet 2017 federal greenhouse gas and fuel economy requirements, and the company introduced two models called X15 Performance and X15 Efficiency.

“The Efficiency version employs an Atkinson Cycle in its valve action that adds fuel efficiency important to fleet managers,” said John Baxter, a freelance technical writer, former mechanic and a member of the TWNA panel. “That caught the attention of his colleagues in the voting.”

“The engine also features a new piston design that conducts heat more effectively away from the combustion bowl and into the cooling system,” Baxter continued, “This takes considerable heat stress off the oil, allowing longer change intervals, and allows use of a smaller oil pump, reducing the parasitic loss associated with driving it.”

The four runner ups were Accuride’s EverSteel, wheel with a special anti-corrosion treatment. Mack and Volvo’s “wave” piston, part of engine upgrades to comply with new greenhouse gas and fuel economy regulations. SAF-Holland’s P89 disc brake, a high-performance, a lightweight and moderate-cost braking product, and Volvo iSee and Mack Predictive cruise control, which “learns” routes and operates a truck’s powertrain to gain maximum efficiency.

The other award committee members and their publications are Paul Abelson, of Land Line; Tom Berg, Heavy Duty Trucking and Construction Equipment; Jason Cannon, Commercial Carrier Journal; David Kolman, Fleet Maintenance; James Menzies, Truck News; Jason Morgan, Fleet Equipment; Jack Roberts, Heavy Duty Trucking; and John G. Smith, Today’s Trucking.

First presented in 1991 to Grote Industries for its red LED marker lamp, the TWNA’s Technical Achievement Award has been awarded to both large and small companies for their products and services. In 2015, Eaton’ Precision medium-duty, seven-speed, dual-clutch automated transmission was the winner of the award.

TWNA was founded in 1988 and is made up of writers, editors, public relations specialists, marketing personnel and other content producers in the realm of trucking.