Since the 1960s, road traffic has been the focus of environmental supervision, and the automobile industry has responded with a series of technologies to make the internal combustion engine several orders of magnitude cleaner than the vehicles half a century ago. The non-road industry is also facing the demand for clean and sustainable machines, which can operate at a higher productivity level and a lower cost. This is a seemingly contradictory requirement: get more with less money. However, a variety of advanced technologies are being used and developed in the non-road field, and these technologies are providing clean power with high productivity and safety. Matt Christensen, vice president of sales and application engineering of Poclain Hydraulic Company, and Sara Feiling, senior director of construction department of American Equipment Manufacturers Association (AEM), discussed these advanced technologies with Jim Anderson of Engineering.com.
Jim Anderson: Hello everyone. Welcome to "Making the Future". Since the 1960s, transportation has been the focus of environmental regulation. The automobile industry has responded with a series of technologies that make the internal combustion engine several orders of magnitude cleaner than the vehicles half a century ago. However, cars and trucks are only part of the power story. The non-road vehicle industry is also facing the growing demand for clean and sustainable development machines, which can operate at a lower cost and higher productivity.
Now, this is a seemingly contradictory requirement. yield twice the result with half the effort. However, the non-road sector is using and developing a variety of advanced technologies to provide clean energy with high productivity and safety. Matt Christensen from Poclain Hydraulics and Sarah Flynn from the American Equipment Manufacturers Association discussed the changing situation with me. Matt is an engineer with 24 years of experience in the fluid power industry. He has held engineering positions in Concentric, Komax, Danfoss and now Portland Hydraulic Company. He holds a bachelor's degree in science from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Northern Illinois.
Sarah Flynn has been the senior construction director of the American Equipment Manufacturers Association (AEM) since 2018, and is the preferred industry resource of AEM in the field of construction equipment. Before joining AEM, Sarah worked at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for nearly 10 years, engaged in heavy highway construction and project management. Sarah holds a bachelor's degree in civil and structural engineering and a master's degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and is a licensed professional engineer in Wisconsin. Matt and Sarah, welcome to the program!
Matt, before we start, can you tell us something about Portland Hydraulic Company?
Matt Christensen: Portland is a family-owned enterprise headquartered in France. We have eight factories and 2400 employees around the world. The company was founded in 1926. We produce a full range of radio pistons, low-speed high-torque motors, closed-loop motor axial piston pumps, power transmission valves, traction valves, electronic equipment and software.
Jim Anderson: Great, Sarah, can you tell us something about AEM?
Sarah Flynn: Of course, the American Equipment Manufacturers Association is a branch of the North American Non-road Equipment Manufacturers Trade Association. We truly represent those who manufacture equipment in agriculture, construction, mining, utilities and forestry.
Jim Anderson: Sara, with you. Of course, at engineering.com, we are very interested in all aspects of engineering. This is an industry sector full of technology, but there are also larger social problems at work here. I mean, as I mentioned in my introduction, traffic has been the focus of environmental laws and regulations since the 1960s. You will think of the launch of the California Air Resources Commission in the automotive industry and all the impacts that have taken place there. However, some people believe that the non-road industry is also a user of engine and power mode, and does not really consider or pay attention to the clean environment. That's not true, is it?
Sarah Flynn: No, absolutely not. As early as the early 1990s, as you mentioned, whether on the road or off the road, those diesel internal combustion engines were subject to the requirements for regulating the staged emissions of nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, particulate matter and all emissions. The non-road vehicle industry is very aware of the environmental impact and continues to focus their efforts on design to comply with these regulations at the state and federal levels. In fact, AEM, on behalf of our members, has actually contacted CARB, representing the entire non-road vehicle industry with a wide range of manufacturing, in response to their recent Level 5 rulemaking.
Jim Anderson: Yes, Matt, you saw it from within the industry. What's your opinion?
Matt Christensen: Well, I mean, in my design and engineering career, we spent a lot of time redesigning the existing platform just to meet the emission requirements. So it means touching the chassis, fuel system, cooling system, transmission, filtering system and transmission system. I mean, the bottom line here is that we have not only been committed to this in the past three years, but also continue to find ways to reduce environmental impact.
Jim Anderson: We discuss this topic from an engineering perspective. I think it gives us a sense of clarity that the mass media sometimes cannot explore. Pollutant is one thing. The industry has done incredible work, mainly to cope with the very cruel environmental regulation. I mean, some requirements of diesel engines seem impossible, but engine manufacturers try to make them work in some way.
But for greenhouse gases, from a technical point of view, the secret of greenhouse gases seems to be burning less fuel. Now, in the non-road industry, it is interesting that you will consider starting from Ag in the 1930s. I mean that tractor tests have been released. These tests have explored fuel efficiency as a basic feature of advanced design, even before the Second World War. Therefore, the non-road vehicle industry seems to have realized the fact that it is necessary to minimize fuel consumption and reduce the chain reaction of emissions forever.
I mean, Sarah, in the construction market, fuel consumption and other inputs, at this time you are a civil engineer. Fuel is very expensive. Has it always been important? Is it more important now? What state?
Sarah Flynn: I'm sure it's always important. As you mentioned, Jim, these regulations have existed for decades, but now we have this technology. We have a lot of data from these machines. Our contractors and project owners began to use these data, including the fuel burning you mentioned, which enables them to more accurately determine the scope of the project and the bidding project, but then really measure the impact of their work. This regulation has indeed promoted transformation and construction, and we are sure to see this in the construction market.
Jim Anderson: Yes. For a long time, it is mainly a diesel power industry, but it is very interesting. The price of diesel fuel is soaring. Now is the time. We have seen the transportation industry. In fact, we have just reported how diesel engines disappear in the light truck market, because the economic reasons for using diesel are rapidly disappearing. Sarah, do you think this is a short-term phenomenon? Will the price of diesel fuel promote the development of OTR industry?
Sarah Flynn: As for the price, I have no inside information. But I absolutely believe that combining it with this regulation will promote the industry's development. So in fact, AEM released a white paper entitled "The Future of Architecture", which will highlight 10 key trends that may significantly change the way buildings are completed in the next 10 years. Three of these 10 trends focus on environment-driven transformation. Therefore, it is not only to strengthen the regulation of carbon-based fuels that will stimulate the adoption of alternative energy solutions. We have seen that compact equipment tends to be electric, and our construction industry will indeed help lead the transition to clean energy, including the use of all these alternative power solutions. There are many more you IFPE in March 2023 (2023).
Jim Anderson: Matt, everyone is talking about electrification. Everyone is talking about it in the transportation industry. Everything is to use electricity to get rid of fossil fuels. From an engineering perspective, I looked at it and said, wow. I mean, diesel engines, generally internal combustion engines, are a very compact way to generate a lot of useful practical power. Let's talk about electrification. What do you think of our position on electrification of non-road equipment?
Matt Christensen: Well, there must be a lot of technologies in development. You are absolutely right. When you have the same space requirements or the same amount of electric solution space, it is difficult to match the power density of traditional fossil fuels and internal combustion engines. Therefore, we are in a situation where spectrum or transition must occur. We will have to use some of our fossil fuels in the best and most effective way possible. At the same time, we will develop some other technologies in the process of changing from traditional hydraulic architecture to electric hydraulic vehicles and even all-electric platforms.
The key is that it returns to power density and energy storage. Different vehicles have different duty ratios and require different power. Therefore, when we focus on the fundamental design of new vehicles to adopt this new technology, in some cases, it is as simple as replacing the engine and energy storage with some electric motors and energy storage solutions, but at most it may require a complete rethinking or redesign of the chassis to adapt to this radically different architecture and energy storage.
Jim Anderson: Yes, you mentioned it very interesting. For example, we have seen hydraulic motors for some low-speed motor power applications. From an engineering perspective, intuitively, this seems to be a very attractive way. Of course, hub motor can solve many problems, because it is easier to arrange hydraulic pipelines than differential and axle. However, in spite of this, most of the large equipment we see still operate in the way of direct mechanical drive, driving the remaining functions of the machine in the power mode of a separate hydraulic power unit.
If we talk about electrification, will it disappear? Will we see the point of using electric motors to disperse the propulsion force and power mode in the whole machine?
Matt Christensen: You are beginning to see a little bit. Even if you see some very large hydraulic or hybrid wheel loaders, many of them have turned to the electric motors on the wheels to disperse power transmission. We will certainly see it on smaller vehicle platforms. But fundamentally, this is a spectrum. We are talking about many different types of vehicles, sizes, grades and power consumption. So solutions, which is why engineers and engineers are so important, we will have to solve the problem around what is the best solution for very small compact construction equipment or very large mining equipment. This will not be the same solution, and there is no panacea.
However, yes, I think that the traditional hydraulic system has existed for a long time. Whether it is pushing those hydraulic motors to the corners of the chassis to improve the ground clearance, mobility or reliability, it also provides some benefits, such as four-wheel drive, traction control, and even hydraulic or electric braking. As we know, this can reduce a lot of wear of the very common friction braking system.
Therefore, I once again think that hydraulic technology will have a place. Due to the power density, reliability, compact installation and the attendant benefits, such as garbage and control and hydraulic braking, it will occupy a place.
Jim Anderson: When we talk about engineers who are engaged in electrification work in other industries, one factor they always mention is noise. Sarah, in large public works projects and infrastructure projects, I feel that I am increasingly sensitive to construction noise, especially in the cities or suburbs during the project period. Do you think this will become a driving force? Is noise a more important environmental consideration than in the past?
Sarah Flynn: Of course. In addition to all these emission regulations, there is also noise pollution. So we see in the United States that some states include noise pollution in their proposals. We also see this on a global scale. For example, the EU has considered both engine emissions and noise emissions in its latest regulatory proposal. Therefore, when you can drive these solutions, they will go hand in hand. These solutions will check these two boxes for you. They are clean energy, but they also have less noise.
Jim Anderson: Matt, you are a hydraulic expert. We can't let you leave without in-depth understanding of hydraulic technology. Historically, the traditional hydraulic system, as I learned several decades ago, is a fairly closed-loop system. We need to use a pump to circulate the oil, a fixed displacement pump, let it pass through an oil cooler, basically circulate back to the tank, and then release the pressure. Maybe there may be an accumulator there. We will release the pressure and then apply it to the actuator through the spool valve, usually the plunger, but they may not be.
Of course, this is intuition. When you see something like oil cooler, you will automatically think, wow, well, that is the energy flowing to somewhere around. Then we saw a new generation of things, such as high efficiency pumps, variable displacement pumps, new ways of thinking about accumulators, and new fluids that operate better at higher temperatures. Before we talk about electricity, have we extracted all the efficiency we can achieve from the traditional hydraulic system?
Matt Christensen: I mean this is a very good view. So here we discuss a series of solutions again. You may argue that some of our fluid power product designs have not really changed fundamentally. In the past few decades, the pump and motor have remained basically unchanged, with only minor adjustments. So I think the efficiency in the design of hydrostatics or hydraulics is still very low, but in fact, many of the most advanced activities are taking place in many places of development, which is actually energy control.
It uses such things as electronic displacement control to better control valves, and even linear actuators or cylinders have integrated some sensors into better control for many years. Therefore, I think again that this will no longer be... We are now quite effective in dealing with fluids. It's really about how we use electronic devices and better control through these types of methods. How can we better guide? How can we better control this energy? So even now, there are many variable-displacement pumps designed on variable-speed and well-controlled motors. Many people will ask why both sides of the equation are variable? This is because our current benefit will be the unlimited control we can obtain in the whole work cycle.
Jim Anderson: Well, this is an interesting application. It sounds like what we are talking about here is the classic VFD, that is, the frequency control of the motor. Is it possible for us to focus on whether it is DC to AC or motor control? a lot. It sounds very complicated. Is it like SCR control of DC motor? It's so charming.
Matt Christensen: Well, it's complicated and interesting, and it depends on who you are talking to. Many compact vehicles will use more low-voltage DC to AC type settings, usually three-phase. In some cases, it may be a simpler setting. Many large vehicles are using what we call high voltage. Therefore, these will be hundreds of volts, and the control and even safety of this type of vehicle design seem to be very different from the small vehicle itself.
Jim Anderson: Yes. So what is interesting is that electricity, direct current, is often taught in the early stage using hydraulic pressure as analogy. You will think of tanks, batteries are batteries, and the circuit layout is also very similar. If we want to increase electrification, we must talk about batteries. It will appear at this point. In the transportation industry, this is a real problem because they are heavy. They are not only expensive, but also heavy at this point. Is weight still a disadvantage of this industry? In some cases, you will increase the weight of some equipment.
Matt Christensen: Well, if you consider battery chemistry and battery technology, you consider the 48-volt forklift battery used in the past decades, and then you look at the lithium-ion battery used in many fields. Our road vehicles, cars, etc., lithium-ion is much lighter. Generally speaking, weight is not always the biggest consideration for engineering vehicles, because their frame and many other components are very heavy at the beginning of design.
I think it is important that when we talk about batteries, we are talking more about energy storage than about batteries and battery chemistry. In my opinion, battery is the stepping stone to a technology, which may be more useful, more sustainable and easier to produce, and may provide us with better power density than battery chemistry and technology.
So that's why I think spectrum is very important. Let's use fossil fuels in the best and most effective way when developing these better technologies. Of course, in this process, we will use these hybrid technologies. These battery technologies will lead us to the best environment, the most effective solution and the best use of our energy resources. Because we will achieve the ultimate goal, I will not even say the ultimate solution, but those future solutions are because once we use fuel cells or anything possible, I hope that engineers will continue to design better ways to use and store energy.
Jim Anderson: Yes, Matt, if there is a term, a descriptive term, that is more often heard than electric cars or electric cars, it is hybrid. Everything is mixed these days. I mean, it's a passenger car, it's a light truck, and my golf club is now hybrid. I understand that you will show articulated loader as a demonstration vehicle on CONEXPO IFPE, which is a hybrid solution. Can you tell me something?
Matt Christensen: So hybrid is one of the words that can mean many things. Therefore, you can have a hybrid internal combustion engine driven vehicle, which is combined with electric motor and hydraulic system. You can have an electric hybrid system, but you have a hydraulic system. Hybrid power simply means that it is not a pure traditional internal combustion engine, hydraulic solution, or a pure, fully electric case. So, for example, one thing we are doing is, again, in this iterative method of helping our manufacturers and customers design the next level of vehicles, some demonstration vehicles are stepping stones.
Therefore, we have a compact articulated wheel loader, which will be displayed at CONEXPO IFPE in March. It will show how to use the existing customer platform, use 3D scanning and other technologies to scan the chassis and figure out how to install the electrical architecture means to enter the chassis designed around the engine, fuel tank and other things. How do we place the electrical or electrical architecture where the traditional engine and fuel tank used to be. Then this special vehicle will be displayed or seen, where you can open the bonnet, and you can see the battery, inverter, motor and how we do it.
The advantage of this design or this kind of design is that automobile manufacturers can produce traditional chassis and electric hybrid or electric hydraulic vehicles at the same time, or even on the same assembly line, because many architectures are the same or the chassis design is the same, but it also brings us a second advantage. It eliminates many challenges of designing and completely changing the chassis when you redesign through the platform. Therefore, the design process is simplified again, but it also allows manufacturers to retain the ability to produce traditional and electrohydraulic versions.
Jim Anderson: Matt, is your system the same size, electro-hydraulic? I know that the duty cycle is everything. I mean that you can basically rate your motor. Your system capacity may use a battery at a specific duty cycle, or store some energy at the place required by peak load. When you use electrohydraulic, do you have the same idea, or do you just look at the big battery and say, man, I have the power to provide on demand, if I need breakthrough, I have
Matt Christensen: We always pay attention to the duty cycle, because we are not only concerned about the fuel consumption or energy consumption of battery energy storage, but also about the product life cycle or product durability, and whether the product can use this specific machine duty cycle? The key to the working cycle and size of the machine is that the vehicles are different. So their energy consumption is different. Vehicles are used in different ways. How long will the vehicle be used during the whole shift or one day? When it comes to traditional engine-driven vehicles, if people run out of fuel, they just need to pick up the fuel tank or go to the tanker to fill it up, and then they can start working again. When it comes to electric or electric vehicle type solutions,
So that's why it becomes so important. We hope to complete a given day or shift with as little battery power as possible or at least one battery power. This is why energy storage and these things and dimensions become so important. In addition, due to the differences in size, use and energy consumption, you cannot use the same mobile solution for a wide range of vehicles.
Jim Anderson: Yes, Matt, I'm glad you raised the question of charging, because Sara, based on the whole industry, for the moment, ordering a dye diesel tanker and running around a truck is a very simple thing. The main construction site only needs to fill up all the fuel tanks at the end of work, and then when the next shift comes, you can press the button. Electric cars need a period of time to recharge with current technology. You can't pull a tanker full of electronics onto a backhoe and simply pour them in. On-site charging and how we charge these vehicles. Does the industry need to develop infrastructure? Do you think there will be a new type of service business developed from it to provide services for large projects?
Sarah Flynn: Yes, I absolutely think the industry will have to adopt it. We will have to change in some way to support this potential electric vehicle charging. If you use a diesel generator to charge the excavator, do you really minimize the impact? So this is where we are. We don't have that kind of infrastructure. This is very different from on the highway. As Matt said, this kind of non-road equipment is different. A machine can be used to do so many things in so many environments, which will really change the battery life.
So absolutely, people are looking for different choices, different choices. The Infrastructure Investment and Employment Act passed last year includes provisions for charging infrastructure. With the announcement of these financing opportunities, we, as ADM representatives of manufacturers and industries, are in contact with legislators. This legislation has really become a reality, which will really support where we can use this technology. If, as Matt said, you can't charge it at the end of the day and use it again the next day, then there is only so much we can do. So we really care about this. Contractors are becoming creative, and we will wait and see.
Jim Anderson: Sarah, one of the high value things that national industry associations can provide is that they can act as industry spokesmen in the regulatory environment. We have seen that there is no charging industry standard in many industries such as automobile industry and electric vehicle. If you have Tesla, you can charge it at the booster station. If you have different brands, you may charge on CCS or any private network. Many people believe that in the transportation industry, in order to make it really work, we will need some general charging standard. Just like the gasoline we use, every pump is suitable for every nozzle, which is no problem at all. Do you think it is necessary to do so in the non-road market? If so,
Sarah Flynn: I don't think it is absolutely necessary, but it is really very helpful for adoption. If you cannot insert it, it does nothing. I mean, even if we compare iPhone with Android, their charges are different. Different Android brands used to charge different fees, but now it's all over. I think it's USB-C, and now everything comes out. So I absolutely believe that this will become a part of the process. It may start outside the regulatory space. This will be an industry gathering to say that this is what our customers need. Without our customers, we will not be there to help meet their needs and needs. So in the standard-setting organization, we, as manufacturers, come together and say, let's do a lot of things together
Jim, you are absolutely right. This is where the association can intervene. It can help not only in terms of manufacturing, but also in terms of end users. Therefore, we are building these relationships, and we are maintaining this participation. We hope that in the next 10, 15, and 20 years, we can see this become a reality, and we can find common solutions.
Matt Christensen: Another technique is that it is important to insert it with standard, but think about how the construction site looks in the first few weeks or in the farmland. Where are you going to plug in? This is actually about infrastructure. Having available power supply and of course plugging in is a consideration. But we talk fundamentally, but we talk fundamentally about vehicles working on undeveloped websites.
Jim Anderson: Yes, yes. This is an unusual working environment. You think it is as far away from all supporting structures as possible, and this is how it is designed. But Matt, you put forward an interesting view about this infrastructure. Ironically, one of the most common infrastructure is cloud connectivity. Now, Elon Musk can sell you a dish, you can almost anywhere on the earth, and you can access the Internet.
At the same time, we are looking for more highly instrumented and sensor equipment than we thought ten years ago. You can track 10 or 20 parameters in a relatively simple device. The actuator with a series of sensors will dump a lot of information to the cloud, and process the information remotely or on the machine. The machine manufacturer can use it to do some interesting things
At the same time, the end user can also know where our ability to actually process and use this information is. Now you come from one aspect of it, which is closely related to it. I have always wondered how you can prevent being flooded by data and how you can stand out from the husk?
Matt Christensen: Well, this is really the key. Many manufacturers are studying how we can create value from all these data. There are some simple victories in preventive maintenance. When the filter is blocked, send an alarm to the cloud on your machine, and then send the order directly to the filter supplier to order one and install it in place. Then it arrives and can be replaced. But this is more like a real-time example.
But we are doing a lot of things. We have talked about system scale and work cycle. Therefore, historically, as a manufacturer of equipment 名媛直播, we will obtain the duty cycle information, such as "a test vehicle that the customer is running". Now we have the expansion ability to place the data collection box like the one used by airplanes. We can put it on many machines.
We can put them on the end customer's machine. We can collect data in real time from vehicles used in practical applications. Therefore, no one is trying to imitate the use of vehicles. It is actually data recorded from construction sites or agricultural sites. Then we can collect these data and use it to really check the duty cycle of system size and similar things, if we are moving to some different system architectures.
As you mentioned, the key is how to classify useful data from useless data? And I think it's a huge challenge to decide what you collect and what you leave behind? This is one of the real challenges. What data do we collect and how do we use it?
Jim Anderson: Sarah, we tend to regard this industry as nuts and bolts driven by mechanical engineering. This is about force and pressure, about horsepower and torque, but what we are talking about is a world more about code and more about data analysis. Do we know that there is a shortage of labor force and many technically qualified personnel in key industries are technicians. Will the future support structure really be related to coding? Do we want people 3000 miles away to wear polo shirts to diagnose and repair equipment? Your feel?
Sarah Flynn: We can definitely. I want to say that from our perspective, from the perspective of the industry, we have this technology, we have these data, we have a workforce that knows how to use it, and we are born to know how to use it. I'd love to see that. I think it's really cool. You can do this from operation, and you can do it from maintenance. You can extract all these data into the cloud. As Matt mentioned, people there have the skills we need to use.
Jim Anderson: There is too much to talk about, but there is too little time to talk about it. We can do this now. I hope we have the opportunity to do more of these things in the future. But just wrap the other elephant in the room as the third elephant in the room. Automation? Everyone is talking about autonomous vehicle, self driving 8-class long-distance trucks. We know that professionals have made prototypes and tested non-road equipment that can operate without operators. I'm not even a remote operator, but I'm actually autonomous. Matt, when can we see the independent future of this equipment in five or ten years?
Matt Christensen: Yes, so I think we have seen it. You can find many, many cases of self-propelled tractors, harvesters and planters there. I would almost argue that in some cases, in terms of commercialization, the agricultural industry may be ahead of the automobile industry. It should be noted that you must understand that those who develop automatic tractors and agricultural tools do not have to deal with so many pedestrians or unpredictable traffic patterns or cyclists.
Therefore, the task and workload are slightly different, but there are already many examples of automated agricultural equipment, which is not only used in testing, but also used commercially.
Jim Anderson: Sarah, from an industry perspective?
Sarah Flynn: Yes, I think we are definitely going well. We have many automation functions. As Matt said, "Agriculture is indeed far ahead of the construction industry, but we have seen a lot in the mining industry." Again, this is controlled, closed, less environmental uncertainty, but we are automating functions, which will lead us to realize automation and build on available technologies again.
We are working with the highway industry to learn lessons, right? And integrate them together, so that we won't finish all this alone. We will learn from those who have completed and successfully completed, and we will eventually come together.
Jim Anderson: An amazing high-tech future. Sarah Fueling, Equipment Manufacturers Association, Matt Christensen, Poclain Hydraulics. Thank you for joining my episode "Making the Future".
