Looks like Komatsu has got it's thinking cap on .
Wow! Kind of like diesel\electric--locomotive style. I'm no engineer but it just sounds right.
I am impressed. I still believe it will go Hydrogen /Electric before too long.
Maybe. My komatsu marketing rep said that Komatsu was working on something like this. Is this the one where they use energy from the boom movement to run the rest of the machine?
from what i gathered, it is the swing function that is electric assisted, whenever swing is actuated, electricity is generated, stored in capacitors, when enough electricity is stored, it is then used to swing/assist that function. makes sense to me, what use is a excavator with out swing function...........
We have a company in OZ that does something similar with a Nitrogen Accumulator on a truck . The driveshaft goes through a pump and then to the diffs . When de-accelerating the pump retards the truck while it is pressurising the Nitrogen cylinders . When accelerating the pump turns into a motor which is powered by the stored pressure in the Nitrogen Cylinders and helps to propel the truck . The excavator would work on a similar principle only storing electricity instead of pressurised fluid .