Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2021 - 6

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
an OEM, they must adopt a fully electric
or hybrid power platform to utilize
the Hydrapulse technology, meaning
it's not easy to retrofit onto existing
platforms, " he said. " It's very difficult
to make the numbers (cost) work to
provide a viable solution to the end
user, so almost all of our work is with
OEMs on new development. "
If a customer only wants one unit, the
100- to 300-kW unit size could be another
limiting factor. " We address this
limitation by working with the customer
to understand how to design our product
into their vehicle and educating them on
the benefits of doing this, " he said.
Mini excavator demo
For its mini excavator demonstrator, Terzo
Power Systems did not remove the existing
diesel engine and hydraulics. The
team added the battery-powered electrohydraulic
system alongside the existing
ICE system so they could demonstrate, in
real time, a side-by-side comparison.
" This allowed us to instantly switch
between the systems to compare the
performance of every single function, "
Terzo said. " This is important since the
industry needs to understand how best
to implement our technology (or similar
Full integration and system simplicity were key design focuses for the Hydrapulse technology.
technology) at the work function level
and to see that it can provide, at a minimum,
the exact same performance as
the traditional system. "
Terzo selected the Vanguard
Commercial lithium-ion battery to pair
with its Hydrapulse technology. The 5
kWh, 48V battery system was easy to
integrate: " We only needed to add a disconnect
and their onboard charger
(Level 2 / 1 kW / 240 vac). Everything
else is included - the battery management
system, voltage monitoring, fault
information, CAN bus connection,
mounting and sealed enclosure, " he said.
" The Vanguard battery's modularity
allows us to scale to our electrical
needs, " Terzo added. " Integration is the
whole ticket to the OEM's world. If they
can't integrate it into their platform,
they're not going to use it. "
In addition to the Vanguard battery,
Terzo also added the wireless safety
and control system from Pennsylvaniabased
Fort Robotics. This allowed the
team to wirelessly control the entire
system. To demonstrate the simplicity
of the electronics systems, a single MRS
Electronics module was used to control
the entire vehicle.
" The purpose of the project was not
Terzo selected the Vanguard
Commercial lithium-ion battery to
pair with Hydrapulse largely because
the 5 kWh, 48V battery system is
scalable and easy to integrate.
6 August 2021
only to provide a demonstration and
gain a deeper understanding of how to
electrify off-highway equipment, but
also to show how truly simple and fast
it is to gain the benefits of electrification, "
Terzo said.
The project demonstrated improved
performance to every work function
including the ground drive, according to
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
FROM TOP: TERZO POWER SYSTEMS; VANGUARD

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2021

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