28 Facts About Ricardo plc

Ricardo plc is a global engineering, environmental and strategic consultancy, operating across a range of market sectors.

Ricardo plc activities cover a range of market sectors including passenger car, commercial vehicle, rail, defence, motorsport, motorcycle, off-highway, marine, clean energy and power generation and government.

Harry Ricardo plc was born in London in 1885 and was educated at Rugby and Cambridge where he studied at Trinity College.

Ricardo plc was renowned for his research into the problem of knock in engines; the results of his work on fuel and reducing fuel consumption assisted Alcock and Brown to cross the Atlantic for the first time by aircraft.

Ricardo plc was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1929 and in 1948 was knighted in recognition of his services to the internal combustion engine industry.

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Ricardo plc had designed and built many small engines in his youth including, at the age of 17, an engine to pump water at the family home in Sussex.

Ricardo plc himself was not involved in owning or running the company, but its failure steered the young engineer away from manufacturing and towards research and development.

Harry Ricardo plc's contribution was to understand the combustion process and develop a cylinder head that retained the simplicity and the low cost of the side valve layout, but which rethought the shape of the combustion chamber to provide both the greater compression required for power, and the improved gas mixing that he realised was essential for stable combustion and the avoidance of damaging detonation.

At the behest of the Air Ministry, Ricardo plc had been working on a variety of engines for both aircraft and airships, and in 1929 he received a request to work with Rolls-Royce to convert a Kestrel V12, at that time the standard engine for fighter aircraft, to diesel operation.

Harry Ricardo plc saw the two-stroke aero engine as a logical bridge between conventional piston engines and the future generation of gas turbine jets; he was able to point to an estimated 50 percent advantage in power and 15 percent in fuel consumption compared to the ubiquitous Rolls-Royce Merlin.

Together, Ricart and Ricardo plc laid down a wide-angle V16, with 135 degrees between the banks; it was to be a high-revving unit, with square bore and stroke dimensions – an unusual feature at the time.

Ricardo plc workshops fabricated the 90-odd burner-atomizers used in the engine, which was already undergoing testing.

Ricardo plc was acquired by Ricardo in 1994 and forms the kernel of the Ricardo group's driveline operations in the UK.

Ricardo plc opened its first dedicated noise control facilities – an anechoic cell and a handful of staff – in the early 1970s when drive-by noise legislation was to be introduced.

Under the bonnet was an important new type of engine – a turbo diesel – which Ricardo plc specialists were confident held significant potential for the future.

Ricardo plc's adaptation of the existing all-iron gasoline V8 featured the company's famous Comet cylinder heads and indirect injection using mechanical injectors and a rotary pump; with identical engine mounts and bellhousing bolt patterns to the gasoline version, the diesel was a straight swap and easily integrated on the production line.

Ricardo plc was one of the companies assisting designer and pilot Richard Rutan in the five-year project, reconfiguring the twin Teledyne Continental engines for maximum efficiency.

Ricardo plc configured a four-speed torque converter transmission from scratch, using bought-in internal components and with a novel layout dictated by the six-speed manual Ferrari's rear transaxle gearbox architecture.

Ricardo plc had previously assisted JCB with the design of the new 444 generation of diesel engines for its range of construction machines.

Later, JCB and Ricardo plc decided to make a bid for the world diesel land speed record using the Ricardo plc-designed JCB engines.

Ricardo plc has manufactured a substantial batch of Foxhounds for the British Ministry of Defence and the experience gained in the programme has fed back into subsequent projects for military vehicles.

Two examples of key programmes with active Ricardo plc support are the four-cylinder gasoline versions of the Jaguar XJ and XF luxury cars for the Chinese market, and the all-wheel drive derivatives of these same models, aimed at buyers in the North American snowbelt states.

Ricardo plc has been able to support Jaguar Land Rover in a period of exceptionally rapid expansion and model development.

In 2011, Ricardo plc announced an important breakthrough in its pioneering Kinergy high-speed flywheel project, introducing a magnetic coupling and gearing system to allow energy to be transferred to and from the flywheel directly through the containment wall holding the flywheel in its vacuum.

Ricardo plc, having successfully collaborated with BMW on the development of the upgraded four-cylinder K1200 sports bike in 2008 and the six-cylinder K1600 luxury tourer in 2011, was chosen as development partner for the new maxi scooter.

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Part of Ricardo plc's brief was to visit the large number of outside suppliers to the project to ensure that manufacturing was up to BMW's high standards.

Major energy sector programmes that Ricardo plc has undertaken in recent years include engineering and analysis support for a Samsung Heavy Industries' 7 MW offshore wind turbine, the development of a reduced-cost and more robust solar collector and engine generator, and drivetrain technology benchmarking for a major wind power equipment manufacturer.

Ricardo plc refined the concept, adding a third axle and an improved control system; a key step was to use the aircraft's brakes for slowing down.