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The Caterpillar Corporation has joined the select number of manufacturers around the world who are looking to alternative methods of power transmission to improve engine efficiency and help operators reduce their carbon footprint - although there are a number of operational advantages in using an electric motor drive in the new Cat D7E crawler tractor, instead of the more usual torque convertor, or hydrostatic transmission set-up.
Top of the list - and a similar advantage also applies to articulated wheeled loaders and 360 excavators and materials handlers - is a 60% reduction in the number of parts needed. The second key advantage is that with no physical connection between power unit and drive axle/track sprockets, component wear and therefore potential failure is eliminated. And the third? In an exclusive - if brief - test drive of a pre-production prototype at the CAT R&D centre, Waste Management World can confirm that driver comfort and control are much improved. Noise levels are reduced by 50%, for example and fuel consumption is claimed to be reduced by around 25%.
All these attributes are of advantage in CATs main 'core' markets of construction, quarrying and mining of course, but it's significant to note a whole new emphasis on the waste and recycling sectors coming out of Caterpillar World headquarters in Peoria, Illinois, in recent months.
Caterpillar claims to be well on track with the planned introduction of 'Teir-4' diesel engine technology both across its own product range and in the production of engine units supplied to other manufacturers and it is clear that the added control and monitoring advantages of diesel electric power in heavy plant and machinery (that was until now largely 'hydraulic') marks a significant chapter in the development of the plant and machinery we use in the waste and recycling sector.
It also opens the door to closely-related 'hybrid' drive opportunities. Cat as yet has not disclosed the corporate thinking on this issue, but it's worth noting the similarities between the diesel engine/electric motor transmission on the Cat D7E - which could be likened in scale to that of a diesel electric rail locomotive - to the auxiliary drive used by German manufacturer Faun in its 'Dual Power' hybrid RCV.
Same principal, slightly different scale.
