The Birth of the Common Rail Engine

The Birth of the Common Rail Engine

Not everyone knows that the innovative common rail injection system, another product of Italian genius, revolutionized the diesel engine field. The system was actually invented by Mario Rico, an Italian physicist from Bari.

However, in the early 1990s, after extensive research and development, the Fiat Research Center in Albasano (TO) sold the rights to the common rail to the Germans, including Robert Bosch, who completed its implementation and began large-scale industrialization.

Thus, German companies began applying the system to automobiles, and the first "lucky one" was the Italian car Alfa Romeo 156 1.9 Jtd, which installed this new engine in 1997.

Until the mid-1990s, diesel engine injection was performed using a mechanical pump, which provided both the pressure needed to open the diesel fuel and the metering of the fuel. However, this system could not optimize fuel injection, and therefore could not reduce fuel consumption and emissions.