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
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