Electrification
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Magnus Svensson
E-mobility specialist, Engineering & Digital Services
+46 (0)70 384 66 91
Contact me

Electrification and electric mobility for machinery.

Electrification has, thus far, been largely about cars, trucks and other on-road vehicles. However, electrically advanced systems outperform conventional ones in other machinery as well in terms of efficiency, environmental impact and user friendliness.

When analysing the characteristics of future products, three trends become clear:

  • Customers ask for lower operational cost and less maintenance
  • Product owners strive to offer added value to their products
  • The world has developed a global environmental awareness

 

One solution to this is Electrification and Electric Mobility. By replacing fossil fuels with electric power, both environmental, cost and efficiency goals are reached. You also enable more user-friendly products compatible with future technologies. Take part of our approach on how to make your machinery electric.

The technology is already here and there are plenty of off-the-shelf components to support it. The key is to combine them in a novel way and to extend their usage to new applications.

Magnus Svensson, E-mobility specialist, Engineering & Digital Services

Electrification has, so far, been largely about cars, trucks and other on-road vehicles as well as smaller power tools. However, electrically advanced systems outperform conventional ones for other machinery as well. Electrified non-road vehicles, such as mining trucks or fork lifts as well as electrified pump or steering systems, are already available on the market developed by well-known brands and with demonstrated benefits.

Many work machines perform their work mainly stationary. They are equipped with a powerful diesel engine generating the power required to propel the heavy machine and to move several tons of load from standstill. This results in local harmful exhaust gases, noise and vibrations. By powering pumps, wheels and moving parts of the machine electrically, either with energy from a large battery or via a series hybrid configuration, the emissions are lowered and the efficiency is increased, meaning improed work-per-fuel unit ratio.

Semcon can support through the whole development chain from early strategy assessments to final verification:

  • Establishing a strategy to reach new businesses
  • Enhance the product with electrified sub-systems
  • Integrate electrically powered drivetrain for full environmental and productivity benefits

A powerful offer in three steps

Electrification of vehicles and working machines is interdisciplinary and requires expertise from different areas of competence: Electrics and Electronics, mechanics, software, hardware, simulation and HMI to mention a few. Semcon has the unity and insight to support our partners in strategy planning as well as development of the products from non-electrified towards electrically powered ones, by applying an iterative process for stepwise product enhancement.

Our electrification offer is based on an iterative and interactive process, divided into three packages:

  • Electrification strategy
  • Power-up your sub-systems
  • Go fully electric

 

The electrification strategy is defined based on your company’s vision and on market and customer needs, and a roadmap to reach the goals is formulated. If the roadmap specifies electrification of subsystems such as equipment and accessories as a beneficial step, this is further investigated and realized in the second package. And further on, if electrified propulsion either as hybrid or pure electric drive has shown beneficial, the development and integration of this is handled in the third package.

By replacing traditional mechanical and hydraulic drives with electric ones, tractor components and its equipment can be controlled independently of the engine speed. This leads to a higher productivity for the overall system and noteworthy fuel saving. As an example the electrified John Deere 7530 Premium tractor reached up to 13% savings. Moreover, transferring power electrically lowers maintenance needs and improves efficiency and precision due to elimination of hydraulic oil, mechanical energy conversion and response time, respectively. Source: FarmIndustry News.

Why electrification? Summary:

There are several reasons and arguments to why go for electrification:

Environmental care: The environmental consciousness of our community increases and new laws are voted in order to reduce our impact on the environment. Electrification give access to new growing markets which are requiring” clean” products. In some cases, tax benefits are eligible which make electrified products more attractive.

Greater flexibility: Lower pollution and lower noise will enable access to new working environments for the products. This is crucial for some applications like in mines or hangars. At the same time, a product with lower noise could operate in the city at night hours and avoid socio-environmental constraints.

Higher productivity: Some of the main advantages of electrification lie in the direct added value that comes from the enhanced product: a leaner maintenance cycle, lower operating costs and easier-to-use products that can also perform their tasks better and faster.

Contact

Magnus Svensson
E-mobility specialist, Engineering & Digital Services
+46 (0)70 384 66 91
Contact me

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