Plant Equipment and Hire March 2018 | Page 47

PRODUCT FOCUS In June 2017, Kobelco announced the release of what it claimed was the world’s first lithium ion battery-powered hybrid excavator: the SK210HLC-10. savings of up to 25% on bulk earth moving, which Hyundai product engineer Joachim Van de Perre explained could offset the higher purchase price in as little as 30 months. Project AME (Additive Manufactured Excavator) is the first fully A year later, in September functional 3-D printed excavator and the first large-scale use of 2013, Hitachi announced steel in 3-D printing. that it had delivered its first regenerated electric power and hydraulic hybrid excavators outside of Japan to two power to the swing motor exclusive to the Australian contractors. The machines, which OEM, according to Scott Smith, the national the company said represented “decades product manager for excavators at Hitachi of innovation, research and development Construction Machinery Australia (HCA). in hydraulic, electric, and battery-powered Although Kobelco Construction Machinery excavator technologies”, used the electric announced its first hybrid excavator back in hybrid technology in conjunction with swing 2006, it wasn’t until 2009 that the company momentum to regenerate energy, which aids commenced the mass production and in cutting fuel consumption. The two new sales of the SK80H hybrid excavator. In the excavators were equipped with a TRIAS- intervening decade, Kobelco’s hybrid system HX hybrid system that combined Hitachi’s has evolved significantly, and in June 2017, it large-capacity tri-pump control valve hydraulic announced the release of what it claimed was and hybrid systems in a combination of under the hood between the engine and the counterweight that is pressurised by house- swing braking. That energy is then used to accelerate the excavator upper structure back in the opposite direction. “Instead of wasting kinetic energy during swing braking, this technology pressurises an accumulator to stop the machine and uses that pressure when needed to accelerate the machine later,” said Gray. Also in 2012, Hyundai revealed its 22 tonne hybrid excavator, the 220LC-9. Designed and developed in-house with electric components from the company’s electronics division, the Hybrid 220LC made use of an electric motor for its slew functions, enabling a four-cylinder 98kW engine to be fitted, rather than a six-cylinder 118kW engine fitted in the conventional R220LC-9. A motor- generator installed between the engine and hydraulic pumps took care of electrical power generation and recovery delivering fuel MARCH 2018 45