Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/102855
innovations | 2013 Innovations winners The envelopes, please Fuel, fuel, fuel, and the costs and complexities thereof. T hat's the common thread running through each of our four Equipment World Innovations Awards this year. Three of our winners help you do more work using less fuel. With fears of a coming "Tier 5" regulation cutting the amount of carbon you can put in the air, these three manufacturers have come up with new and ingenious ways to boost the efficiency of their machines. Caterpillar's 336E H excavator uses a hydraulic hybrid system to "conserve, optimize and reuse" the maximum amount of energy created by the engine, with efficiencies as high as 50 percent. Caterpillar's 966K XE wheel loader tackles the same goals with a split-power, continuously variable transmission that can coax up to 25 percent improvement in fuel efficiency. Volvo's On Board Weighing system for articulated trucks senses load weight to within 1 percent, helping operators and fleet managers prevent over or under-loading and thus save on fuel, tires and engine life. JCB's Ecomax engines solve a different, but equally challenging fuel problem: what to do with an engine built for ultra low sulfur diesel, if and when it's sold or shipped to a country with higher sulfur levels. Congratulations to these manufacturers for their contributions to bettering the environment and helping solve some of their customers and our readers, most pressing problems. Volvo's On Board Weighing System Sensors and telematics bring precision to mass excavation I n the world of mass excavation even a small error in overloading, under-loading or carryback adds up to big bucks misspent at the end of the day. But when the excavator's buckets are dropping several tons per bucketful and the articulated truck is hauling 30 or 40 tons with each trip, precision is pretty much impossible. Until, that is, Volvo Construction Sensors on the gas Equipment came up with their On Board accumulators on the suspension Weighing System (OBW). Developed by relay information to the machine's computers, a team of Volvo engineers with the goal which instantly tell the operator how much the of improving articulated hauler producload in the truck weighs. tivity, the OBW uses sensors to measure gas pressure in the A35FFS and A40FFS artics with full suspension gas accumulators. Signals from the sensors are relayed to software the loads articulated haulers would carry," says Mikael integrated into the machine's electronics and can tell Petersson, technical product manager at Volvo CE. the operator if he is under or over loaded, or getting The OBW helps prevent overload and the resulting stuck with carryback. machine wear, tire damage and excess fuel consumpAnd the OBW can calculate a truck's load accurate tion that go with it. It also helps prevent the machine to 1 percent. from being operated with a reduced load ensuring "Before this system there was a huge difference in maximum productivity and efficiency, he says. EquipmentWorld.com | January 2013 19