Caunton have a well established relationship with manufacturing giant Honda and their engineer SSOE based in Toledo USA. This particular project involved the supply of nearly 600te of structural steelwork at Honda’s Swindon manufacturing plant for a new Advanced Semisolid Casting Technology (ASCT) Building. This new unit manufactures the new Honda ASCT Engine. This engine includes a high-strength cylinder block manufactured using a brilliant new production process. The new process, ASCT, has been adopted for the newly developed 2.2L 4-cylinder Intelligent Common-rail Turbo Diesel Injection (i-CTDi) diesel engine which will be fitted into the new and most stylish Honda Accord to be marketed in Europe in the future.

The new process results in a 30% weight reduction in the new cylinder block, compared to that of the conventional cast iron diesel engines of the same displacement. The brilliance of the Honda engineers, who developed this, creates of course a more sustainably-attractive motor car coming onto the market. Caunton are delighted that they are helping in some small way to move this forward.