Conference Program

Europe and China are already beginning to see significant deployments of electrified construction machinery. The North American market is behind the curve. What can it learn from European countries and the Chinese market as it starts to ramp up? What do OEMs need to be aware of? Do trial projects work? What is the role of contractors and fleets?

As the overall transportation market moves toward more zero-emission options, regulators are recognizing the need to include off-road equipment in the menu of incentives. One example of this is the Clean Off-Road Equipment (CORE) program that is funded by the California Air Resources Board. This point-of-sale voucher program seeks to minimize the incremental costs of zero-emission (battery electric and fuel cell) equipment such as material handling equipment, terminal tractors, airport ground support equipment, mobile power generators, construction equipment, agricultural equipment, transport refrigeration units and rail switchers, among others. This incentive process speeds the commercialization of new zero-emission equipment as is being seen as a model for upcoming state and federal programs.

ESG mandates, fuel prices and the rise of practical battery electric vehicle (BEV) solutions have got many OEMs thinking hard about BEVs for heavy equipment. Many have gone in that direction, but there is still a whole lot of guesswork: is battery electric cost-efficient for huge machines? Will heavy-duty BEVs work without disrupting normal duty cycles? What type of BEV: fast-charge or battery swapping? Is there truly an ROI… how can I be sure? MEDATech’s Darren Mueller will answer these questions and explain how OEMs and site owners can not only calculate a precise return on investment, but also determine the optimal BEV battery and infrastructure mix for any site.

This presentation explores the challenges and lessons learned in delivering a robust and reliable solution, unlocking the full potential of hybridization/electrification. With tangible examples of how to transition from an existing combustion engine-driven solution to an electric or hybrid machine, understanding the key criteria for making decisions to electrify power transmissions provides an inclusive look at available technology and selecting the ideal solution for your mission profile. Due to rapidly occurring changes across all market segments, Twin Disc has invested and developed new solutions to become a dominant hybrid and electrification solution supplier and system integrator. Product experts are currently working with many OEMs to help them achieve their electrification goals.

Zero carbon policies for heavy-duty transport are appearing across most US states and the Federal Government, with highly aggressive timelines in difficult sectors such as long-haul trucking, urban bus and rail transit, maritime vessels and more. Fulfilling this need will require hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles that are beyond demonstration, and fully capable of the service support and reliability required to meet these challenging applications at scale, without endangering the electrical grid and those who depend upon it.

The electrification of medium and heavy-duty vehicles holds the promise of significant gains in power, torque and emissions reductions, but concerns over the range and duty cycle of battery electric vehicles remain. WAVE’s wireless, high-power charging system utilizes ground-embedded pads to deliver the high power needed for the meaningful extension of range and duty cycle. WAVE’s director of policy and market development, Vincent Pellecchia, will highlight deployments at the Port of LA and in mass transit fleets that demonstrate how fast, safe, hands-free charging will enable off-highway OEMS & fleet operators to more easily meet both performance and zero-emission goals.

In this study, an advanced high-power, low-voltage hybrid architecture currently under development is applied to heavy-duty off-road applications. In this application, the downsized engine is assisted by an integrated electric motor and energy storage solution incorporating ultracapacitors for high energy capacity and rapid energy discharge. A modeling approach is firstly described and followed by an optimization strategy that addresses multiple usage scenarios and application requirements. The latter is established as a universal strategy that can be equally applied to other applications. Finally, the simulation results indicate an improved fuel economy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and significant potential for criteria emissions improvement.

Creating a clean, sustainable future is central to Danfoss’ values and pushes our teams to develop innovative solutions. With a long, distinguished history in mobile machinery and hydraulics, our Editron group can build upon a strong collection of Danfoss products, tools and engineering teams to create the electrified technologies of tomorrow. Through recent investments in proof of concept vehicles, Danfoss has proven its commitment to accelerating the development of electrified off-highway machines. Our team worked together to convert a CAT926M 13-ton wheel loader to full battery electric vehicle, leveraging our application expertise to pioneer the future of through market-leading innovation.

As the first international CANbus standard, the ISO 11783 is expanding 'plug-and-play' simplified operation, via Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) ISOBUS-certified machinery. This innovative agricultural electronics architecture has been applied with great success and resulted in a need for more brand interoperability. Now these same AEF organizations are working to create High Speed ISOBUS for ag and construction equipment. This will be 4000 times faster than the original ISOBUS and used in multiple use cases across multiple industries.

Lenord+Bauer has been a specialist in motor feedback sensors for more than 40 years. In this presentation, Lenord+Bauer shows the impact of sensor technology on a powertrain. It starts with results from extensive software-based simulations with a Nissan Leaf-like powertrain and further real-world testing with a 48V synchronous 4-pole pair test bench, where different driving situations were performed using rotor position sensors with different resolution and accuracy. The main focus was on observing torque ripple and energy consumption during extreme driving situations such as slow startup at very high loads. The results will be useful for development departments planning future powertrain generations.

Moog's all-electric integrated electrification system approach is the first in the off-road heavy equipment industry. Moog also has hydraulic architecture options and works with partners to choose the best approach. In either case, Moog’s technology includes integrated hardware, software and application engineering know-how. We use an open architecture development environment and product building blocks to reduce costs and time-to-market. The result is a more efficient and intelligent machine architecture; maximizing run time while matching the power and performance of a diesel-hydraulic machine and enabling our partner's digital journey. Our presentation will discuss the trade-offs to consider when choosing between all-electric and electric/hydraulic architectures and share our learnings to date on the advantages of digital architecture.

Battery design is a key factor in the transition to electric powertrains. It needs to handle multiphysics behavior, and optimize multiple objectives such as performance, efficiency and durability. This presentation will demonstrate a multiphysics, multi-objective battery design and analysis methodology, combining advanced analysis methods, integrated system analysis and a model-based system engineering approach. The thermal-electrochemical-structural analysis allows accurate prediction of battery behavior in production and in use; and in critical safety scenarios, to predict performance, efficiency, durability and safety. Integrated battery system analysis predicts the overall efficiency and operation time during real-world duty cycle and charging scenarios. The model-based system engineering approach allows for a robust development process and a faster timeline. In conclusion, this methodology provides high-accuracy battery behavior prediction, enables easier design iterations and promotes multi-objective optimizations for battery designs, enabling manufacturers to transition to electrified powertrain faster, more easily and confidently.

Driven by factors such as increasing automation, safety requirements, experienced operator scarcity, machine size, functional complexity and energy efficiency, operating valves' pumps and motors are increasingly driven by electronic controllers. ECUs can perform functions traditionally achieved with hydraulic control with greater precision. They can also apply complex logic that allows a machine to respond to environmental and operating conditions, as well as adapt to operators of differing skill levels. Increased precision contributes to the adoption of autonomous operation. What makes this possible is an increased operational 'awareness' of the state of fluid-controlling components. Those feedback mechanisms have a history in the industrial hydraulic market and less widely in mobile hydraulics. This presentation will discuss one such mechanism, the linear variable differential transformer or LVDT, now being adapted for application with cartridge valve technology.

Zero-emission heavy machinery is limited by hydraulic cylinders. The problem is that hydraulic cylinders consume a large portion of the machine's energy budget because they are inefficient. This prevents the affordable electrification of heavy machinery because large, expensive batteries are required to achieve diesel-equivalent runtime. More efficient hydraulics are incrementally improving efficiencies. Also, electromechanical actuators such as ball screws and roller screws are replacing hydraulic cylinders where they can. Innovative electromechanical actuators with remarkable efficiency, force and speed will disrupt hydraulics to enable all-electric heavy machinery for zero emissions.

There are five major problems associated with aerated oil that can be deadly to lubrication systems. Depending on the design of a hydraulic tank, the application and aeration severity, it is possible that all of these conditions could be happening at the same time. This presentation will study the symptoms and effects of each of these phenomena and the impact on design.

Industrial & off-highway vehicles are advancing with complex and precise motion control, lighter-weight components, energy optimization and the inclusion of electronics such as diagnostic feedback. Electric linear actuators check all of these boxes with controllability, flexibility and ease-of-use as the fundamental goals. Linak actuators feature a variety of communication platforms including CANopen, CANbus J1939, IO-link, Danfoss Plus+1, and the new I/O interface, allowing for a built-in controller that can easily be integrated into existing systems. Featuring a detailed case study, this presentation will demonstrate how Linak has developed an entire linear movement solution that reduces components, maintenance and costs, enables autonomy and optimizes energy use.

An increasing number of zero-emission powertrain technologies will need to be adopted to meet future CO2 targets. In the on-road sector, this demand will be met by battery and fuel cell electric vehicles. In harder to electrify sectors, such as off-road transport, hydrogen (H2) internal combustion engines (ICEs) are expected to play a strong role in achieving zero-emission goals. As more heavy-duty H2 spark ignition (SI) engines progress into their development phase, the issues with their practical implementation become apparent. In this presentation, it will be shown that a pre-chamber can be used to address high load knock and pre-ignition issues, enabling diesel-like power and torque. Additionally, the combustion efficiency improvement provided by the pre-chamber provides secondary benefits for transient controls at extreme lean (λ > 3) operating conditions. Of the several sources of error when determining air fuel ratio (AFR) at these conditions for H2 ICEs, hydrogen fuel slip introduces the highest sensitivity to exhaust-measured AFR. The challenge this H2 slip AFR sensitivity poses for closed-loop transient controls and how this differs between SI and pre-chamber ignited H2 ICEs will be explored.

Settima and SPIN combine hydraulic, electric, electronic and mechanical expertise in the design and manufacturing of 'matching-technologies' for industrial EV and HEV manufacturers. We will present a flexible approach in the design and development of the most suitable motor technology to be employed within electrohydraulic systems. Diversified motor technologies also support the supply chain stability, including non-strategic materials with uncompromised high efficiency levels. This approach allows the best 'matching' to customers’ platforms, complying with environmental regulations, supply chain stability, economic and technical objectives. Alternative technologies, silent operation, environmental and financial sustainability are pillars of our flexible approach.

With mobile working machines being electrified, energy economy is taken to a new level. Completely different requirements for cooling and heating need a rethink regarding thermal management. With the actual highly efficient electric motors and systems, conditioning the vehicle to its comfort temperature makes up a significant part of the total energy consumption. Ymers TMS intelligently manages thermal flows through the vehicle driveline, HV battery and cabin, always making sure existing energy is used rather than draining the battery by extra cooling or heating. Standard thermal modules help to ensure a high quality level and reduce development time. Vehicle-specific applications provide flexibility towards the customer's individual requirements and promise the perfect fit of the thermal management system and vehicle. What are the main challenges of thermal management for electric machines? How can standardized thermal modules fit different individual customers' machines? Why does a thermal management solution need to be a combination of system and service? How can the thermal management system help to improve the overall vehicle energy consumption?

Electrification is gaining traction in the heavy equipment industry. However, there are many challenges for manufacturing and adoption of battery-powered construction equipment. The cost of batteries and lack of charging facilities in rural areas are the main obstacles. There are other design and engineering challenges such as storing a large pack of batteries, achieving high power density, thermal safety, etc. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the how different simulation solutions can be used to address these challenges. We will also discuss how connecting modeling and multiple physics simulation domains such as electromagnetics, structures, fluids and multibody simulations into a single environment can help speed up the electric drive design process.

The expanded capacity of EVs is becoming more understood as they blend into on-road travel, delivery and material handling tasks. Off-road, all-electric mobile power systems have been quietly working and handling a wide variety of tasks within municipalities, federal agencies and disaster response. This presentation will take a quick look at global research and policy progress, along with OEMs who have been bringing off-road electrification to fleet managers. Understand how off-road EVs work, what they do, and for how long. Learn about alternative infrastructure support to charge off-road EVs. Finally, look forward confidently to what is next for off-road EVs.

Now that lithium batteries can become an integral part of a lift truck, there is also the option of using a third-party modular lithium battery pack made by a specialist company. Will an integrated or a modular battery pack become the standard? This question turns out to be pivotal for the future development of material handling equipment. In consumer devices powered by lithium batteries (like cell phones) an integrated battery is a standard choice today. A user does not need to pick and choose among multiple options or perform any maintenance on the battery; one size fits all users. When it comes to professional tools, a modular detachable battery usually does a better job.

Modern electronics exist in many environments, including the dusty and wet conditions that industrial vehicles experience. Smart agricultural and industrial machines incorporate sensors, communications and voice interactive features. The challenge that device designers face is protecting their devices from the environment in a cost-effective manner. Enclosure venting provides the benefits of long device life, easy integration and conformal design. A review of ingress protection standards, enclosure testing and pressure equalization will be discussed. Condensation event reduction and sensor port access will be shared. Real-world use examples will illustrate the benefits.

Induction motors have been the classic solution for material handling and forklift electric drive solutions. The combination of higher efficiency ASRPM motors and integrated power electronics provides OEMs and end users with new levels of performance and productivity.

The purpose of this presentation is for the audience to develop an understanding of powertrain standard voltage levels and to learn the benefits of 72-120V intermediary voltage powertrains and components. By the end of the presentation, the audience should also be able to comprehend the effects of electrical shocks on humans and the safeguards necessary to prevent this from happening. The presentation begins by defining the EV powertrain standard voltage levels and presents the different aspects of intermediary voltages from 72-120V. It then dives into the topic of safety and IEC 60479-1, which is the primary safety source on electricity hazards to humans. This will be accompanied by examples of voltage levels and safeguards found in common consumer/professional products. Finally, the presentation ends with an overview of the different intermediary voltage powertrain components.