Improving Efficiency of Micro Excavator With Decentralized Hydraulics Available to Purchase

Government regulations incentivize investigation of the potential for hybridization of non-road mobile machinery (NRMM). Many approaches to energy saving in hydraulic systems have been established. One of the methods first introduced in the aerospace industry is “decentralized” or “zonal” hydraulics. The decentralized system is realized with pump-controlled actuators, which are distributed throughout the system. In this research, decentralized hydraulics are realized with a direct-driven hydraulics (DDH) drive and implemented on a 1-ton class JCB micro excavator. The original valve-controlled system for boom, stick, and bucket is replaced with three DDH units. In a DDH unit, a double fixed displacement pump/motors with a speed-controlled electric servomotor directly controls the amount of hydraulic oil pumped into and out of the system. The hydraulic pump/motors create flows dependant on the rotating speed of the servomotor. A hydraulic accumulator is used as a conventional tank replacement. The aim of this paper is to investigate the efficiency improvement of the excavator with decentralized hydraulics compared to an electrified conventional load sensing system, from an energy consumption point of view under a typical digging cycle. In order to acquire the energy consumption distributions of the DDH and load sensing (LS) system, a model of the micro excavator which comprises mechanics, hydraulics, electronics, and control systems is developed in Matlab/Simulink. Simulation results demonstrate that the total efficiency of the excavator with LS control is 18.3%, and with DDH (decentralized hydraulics) is 71.3 % for a selected typical working cycle.