What is the Future of Hydraulics in Construction Equipment?
The electrification of construction equipment is bringing several new technologies to the market, including greater use of electric actuation systems in place of hydraulics.
Equipment manufacturer Bobcat Co. has introduced two fully electric machines which use electric actuation, the T7X all-electric compact track loader and S7X all-electric skid steer loader. According to Joel Honeyman, VP of Global Innovation at Bobcat, electric actuation offers many benefits over hydraulic-based systems.
These include the ability to better understand the position and current of an electric actuator. This enables opportunities to improve machine movements for better accuracy as well as prevent damage to a machine by adjusting to current spikes. “I think it's really opened up the eyes of not just us internally, but across the industry around how can we use electric types of motion rather than hydraulics in certain places,” said Honeyman.
However, he said there will still be a place for hydraulics including the potential to marry them with electronics for hybrid applications.
In this interview with Power & Motion, Honeyman provides his insights on the growing use of electric actuation in place of hydraulics as well as the other technology developments taking place in the construction equipment industry.
This is the second part of a two-part interview series with Honeyman. Watch “Electrification and Automation Will Bring Productivity Gains to Construction” for the first half of the interview to learn about Bobcat’s development of electric and autonomous construction equipment technologies.
