See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/287088407

Electrification of excavator

Article · January 2014

CITATIONS READS

2 455

7 authors, including:

Chiranieevi Mahat P. Kuosmanen

Kathmandu University Aalto University
3 PUBLICATIONS   3 CITATIONS    75 PUBLICATIONS   490 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

SmartCom View project

Green Steel View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Chiranieevi Mahat on 28 March 2022.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

9th International DAAAM Baltic Conference
"INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING" -
24-26 April 2014, Tallinn, Estonia

ELECTRIFICATION OF EXCAVATOR

Vauhkonen, N.; Liljeström, J.; Maharjan, D.; Mahat, C.; Sainio, P.;
Kiviluoma, P. & Kuosmanen, P.

Abstract: When using work machines in additional ventilation could in some

enclosed sites a significant cost is cases be avoided if the work machines
additional ventilation. The need of were powered with non-combustible
additional ventilation can be partly or engines.
completely excluded by using electric This study aims to convert a working
driven work machines. JCB Micro excavator to an excavator
For this study a JCB Micro excavator that runs entirely on electrical power.
was chosen as a building platform. The Even then the excavator has to be able to
14 kW diesel powered engine with its do the same tasks as prior to its
required equipment was replaced with a conversion. This is evaluated by doing
10 kW electrical motor. Four lithium same set of measurements before and
titanate batteries, with a total voltage after the conversion to define the
level of 96 V and a capacity of 60 Ah, performance difference. Besides
powers the electric motor. The overall performance the operational time in both
success of the project was evaluated excavators are compared.
with measurements, which compares the The conversion process is done with a
same excavator with the two power low budget, so the outcome of the
sources. conversion is to be considered as an
With electric drive while maintaining the inexpensive prototype. The main
same performance, the operating time objective is to get the excavator in
was substantially reduced compared to working condition so that the
diesel powered drive. measurements can be performed.
Key words: excavator, electrification, Aspects like weatherproofing according
electric motor, electric drive to industry specifications are considered
as additional features.
1. INTRODUCTION One fully electrical hydraulic mini
excavator has been introduced in 2011.
When using excavators indoors there are The manufacturer claimed this excavator
a few things to consider. Firstly, the was on par with their, at the time,
space of an enclosed location is limited. current mini excavator in terms of
Usually this means smaller sized performance and that its lithium-ion
machines. Secondly, when working in batteries could power the excavator for
enclosed spaces ventilation is usually at up to six hours of uninterrupted service.
best weak. Additional ventilation has to However, so far the excavator has not
be built for the exhaust gas outlet. This been made commercially available. [1]
means that work site manager has to Many excavator manufacturers are
make plans and build the additional providing partially electric driven
ventilation, which makes the use of an excavators named hybrid excavators. In
excavator indoors considerably more these excavators the rotation of the cabin
expensive than outdoors. The need of is generally powered with an electric

305
motor. This system often utilizes engine but the difference in torque will
regenerative breaking to slow down the affect the hydraulic pressure.
rotation. An electric motor can also be
integrated into the diesel motor output to 2.2 Fuel consumption measuring
provide additional power when the installment
diesel motor needs to rapidly accelerate. To be able to measure the diesel
These electric motors can be powered consumption of the excavator for the
with super capacitors. When measurements a fuel measuring
aforementioned systems are utilized the installment was built. The setup can be
overall fuel efficiency is improved by seen mounted to the excavator in
about 20% compared to a conventional Figure 1.
excavator. [2] On the right side of Figure 1 is the lower
Recent studies in excavators have half of the measuring tube, which shows
mainly concentrated on improving the the volume of fuel. As the refueling has
overall fuel efficiency of hybrid been done prior to a measurement, the
excavators with different methods, such volume in the tube is read from the
as improved control strategy and energy scale. After the measurement the reading
recovery. [2][3][4] is taken again. The fuel consumption can
This article begins with the methods of then be evaluated from the difference.
this study. In methods the conversion Under the measuring tube is the fuel
process and the comparing output and return. The output line leads
measurements are elaborated. The to the input of the fuel rail of the diesel
conversion process consists of the engine. As the flow rate of the fuel in
disassembly, part selection and the fuel rail is constant there needs to be
manufacturing, and assembly. After this a return for the leftover fuel, which in
the results of the project are shown. This this case is lead to the return of the
means showing the outcome of the measuring tube.
conversion process and the Because of the small volume of fuel that
measurements. Finally, there is the fits in the measuring glass, there are four
conclusion, which in turn also includes control valves which are used to switch
the discussion of the results. the fuel source between the fuel tank and

2. METHODS

2.1 JCB Micro

The converted JCB Micro excavator is
powered by a diesel engine producing
14 kW at 2200 rpms. The excavator
weighs 1.1 tons and has a fuel tank of 14
liters. The excavator is however not in
original condition, as it has been
modified for prior projects. The
excavator has been fitted with
electrically controlled proportional
valves and a control unit. There will be
no additional modifications in the
hydraulics in this conversion process. Fig. 1. Fuel consumption measurement
Thus, the electrical motor will operate at installment.
same range of speed than the diesel

306
fuel consumption measurement measurement. Other parameters
installment. documented were weight of the driver,
the ambient temperature, the engine
2.3 Measurements temperature, and the hydraulic oil
To determine the outcome of the temperature.
conversion a set of measurements for
initial state were done. One of the main 2.4 Conversion process
focuses when planning the All operations in JCB Micro are
measurements was to make them simple achieved with pressurized hydraulic
to perform. The individual fluid. These operations include turning
measurements would thus have a smaller the cabin, swinging the boom, arm and
deviation, which in turn would make the bucket, lifting and lowering the plow,
comparison more valid. Because none of running the continuous tracks, and using
the researchers had experience in the extendable undercarriage.
operating excavators, doing The pressurization of the hydraulic fluid
measurements involving fine series of is achieved by running a hydraulic
movements would be very difficult to pump. The powering of the hydraulic
repeat accurately. pump is done with the combustion
The test procedure consisted of a total of engine. The hydraulic pump and the
seven different measurements. The combustion engine are connected using a
measurements were: transmission and a coupling. This is
1. Driving forwards 50 meters. shown in Figure 2.
2. Turning the cabin around 5 times. In this study these components, except
3. Fully swinging the arm up and for the hydraulic pump, were replaced
down 5 times. with an electric drive.
4. Fully turning the boom left, right Liquid cooled Golden Motor HPM-
and left 3 times. 10KW was chosen for the electric motor
5. Offloading a sand pile. [5]. As a brushless DC motor it is
6. Idling with full throttle. capable of producing maximum power
7. Idling with no throttle. of 10 kW at 96 V and has operational
All measurements were performed on speed range of 2000-6000 rpm. With
level ground paved with asphalt, except optimal driving conditions the motor can
for measurement #5, which was achieve 92% efficiency.
performed on even soil.
The different measurements were
repeated 3 times, except for
measurement #5 which was repeated
twice, and measurements #6 and #7 were
done once.
Main quantities in these measurements
were time and fuel consumption. The
fuel consumption measuring installment
is described in chapter 2.2. The energy
consumption for the electric driven
excavator was read from the control
unit, which has been described later in
this chapter. For accurate fuel
consumption the temperature of the
Fig. 2. Mechanical power chain of an
diesel in the measuring device was
excavator.
measured before and after each

307
 speed regulation there is a switch for
putting the electric motor in drive mode.
For the electric motor and the hydraulic
pump a welded sheet metal structure was
built (Figure 3).
Additionally the mounting for the
batteries and the control unit were built
using store bought materials. Because
the electric driven excavator is a
prototype and consideration of keeping
the two back mountings of the
combustion engine (seen in Figure 3)
intact the battery could not been placed
inside the excavator and therefore had to
be placed behind the driver.
Fig. 3. Sheet metal structure (1) for the Because of the size of the prebuilt
electric motor (2) and the hydraulic control unit, it had to be located outside
pump (3). Torsionally flexible coupling the excavator above the batteries.
is also represented (4).
3. RESULTS
The coupling of the electric motor and
the hydraulic pump was done using KTR The excavators before and after the
ROTEX 42 GG torsionally flexible conversion were able to do comparable
coupling [6]. load intensive tasks (measurements #1-4,
The power source for the motor consists section 2.3) in approximately the same
of four Altairnano lithium-titanate amount of time, which indicates that the
battery modules, each operating at 24 V excavators are capable of doing the same
and with a 60 Ah nominal capacity [ 7]. tasks. This statement is confirmed by
These batteries will be combined in that the electric driven excavator was
series to produce the necessary 96 V to able to perform in the same way as the
power the electric motor. combustion driven excavator when
For operating the electric motor a ready- offloading a sand pile.
made control unit was used. The unit Table 1 and 2 shows the average energy
houses a Sevcon Gen4 controller, which consumption for each measurement,
was configured to work with the
particular electric motor. All wiring Average
from the electric motor and the batteries Average fuel energy
are connected to this unit. The unit also Measure- consumption consumption
contains the on/off switch of the electric ment # [l/h] [kWh]
motor and an emergency stop button. 1 1.35 14.02
The control unit is configured and values 2 1.27 13.16
are read from the CAN-bus. 3 1.46 15.09
The energy consumption for the electric
4 1.93 20.03
driven excavator was logged from an
Altairnano controller, which was 5 1.56 16.15
attached between the batteries and the 6 1.12 11.64
control unit. 7 0.51 5.32
Speed regulation of the electric motor is
achieved with a potentiometer, which is Table 1. Average fuel consumption for
wired to the control unit. Besides the the measurements.

308
 Average energy 4. CONCLUSION
consumption
Measurement # [kWh] In this study the conversion process of a
1 2.96 JCB Micro excavator from a diesel
driven state to an electric driven state
2 2.55
was presented. The conversion process
3 3.76
mainly focuses around finding suitable
4 5.59 electric motor, batteries and
5 3.10 transmission. Also the mounting of these
6 1.35 parts takes its time to plan and to build
7 0.46 and especially the parameterization of
the electric motor proved to be time
Table 2. Average energy consumption consuming. Besides getting the electric
for the electric driven excavator. driven excavator to function there was
measurements made to compare the two
which are respectively for the excavators with different power sources.
combustion driven and electric driven The performance difference of the
excavator. Number of the measurement different excavators proved to be
corresponds to the numbered list in minimal. However, the operational time
chapter 2.3. Table 1 shows besides the of the converted excavator is clearly
calculated energy consumption the fuel reduced; despite of using four high-
consumption. grade lithium-titanate batteries and
When comparing the tables there’s a big having an advantage of the electric
difference in the average energy motor’s much higher efficiency. This
consumptions between the excavators. means the operational time is about two
When doing load intensive tasks the hours (when using the full capacity of
energy consumption of the electric the batteries) depending on the power
driven excavator is approximately 20% usage. With the fuel combustion engine
of the energy consumption for the and the 14 liter tank the operation time
combustion driven excavator. The power was calculated to be around eight hours.
consumption is lowered to The comparable short operational time
approximately 10% when the task for the electric driven excavator could
doesn’t demand much power, which is be improved by providing the excavator
the case with the idling measurements with a smarter power controlling system,
(measurement #6 and #7). for example an automatic shutdown of
By knowing the energy consumption, the excavator when not operated. Also,
maximal energy storage and overall by finely tuning the electric motor and
energy to work conversion efficiency of using this motor at the optimal speed by
the excavator the operational time can be implementing an appropriate gear ratio
calculated. When calculating the the overall efficiency could be
operational time for the diesel driven increased.
excavator based on the measurement The study shows that electric powered
results, which is offloading of a sand excavators can potentially be used in
pile (measurement #5), the operational some cases where a fuel driven
time is approximately eight hours. The excavator is more expensive to use. The
same calculation for the electric driven limiting factor of electric powered
excavator gives approximately two hours excavator is mainly the low capacity of
operating time. the batteries and the long charging times
of the batteries compared with the
conveniences when using fuel driven

309
 excavators. Also the purchasing price of CORRESPONDING ADDRESS
an electric driven excavator would be
higher because of the expensive Panu Kiviluoma, D.Sc. (Tech)
batteries. Aalto University School of Engineering,
Department of Engineering Design and
5. REFERENCES Production
P.O. Box 14100
1. Takeuchi Manufacturing [US], Ltd. 00076 Aalto, Finland
News Announcement: Takeuchi Phone: +358 50 433 8661
Introduces World’s First Fully Electric E-mail: [email protected]
Hydraulic Excavator [WWW] http://edp.aalto.fi/en/
http://www.takeuchi-us.com/www/blog/
viewpost/43 (8.3.2014) ADDITIONAL DATA ABOUT
AUTHORS
2. Hakgu, K., Jaewoong, C., Kyongsu,
Y. Development of supervisory control Vauhkonen, Niclas
strategy for optimized fuel consumption Phone: +358 50 553 4699
of the compound hybrid excavator. E-mail: [email protected]
Journal of Automotive Engineering,
2012, 226, 1652-1666. Liljeström, Jan
Phone: +358 50 521 7589
3. Wang, T., Qingfeng, W., Tianliang, L. E-mail: [email protected]
Improvement of Boom Control
Performance for Hybrid Hydraulic Maharjan, Devendra, B.Sc. (Tech.)
Excavator with Potential Energy Phone: +358 46 641 7644
Recovery. Automation in Construction, E-mail: [email protected]
2012, 30, 161-169.
Mahat, Chiranjeevi, B.Sc. (Tech.)
4. Tianliang, L., Qingfeng, W., Baozan Phone: +358 44 016 8648
H., Wen G. Research on the Energy E-mail: [email protected]
Regeneration Systems for Hybrid
Hydraulic Excavators. Automation in Kuosmanen, Petri, D.Sc. (Tech.),
Construction, 2010, 19, 1016-1026. Professor
Phone: +358 0500 448 481
5. Golden Motor [WWW] E-mail: [email protected]
http://goldenmotor.com/ (2.3.2014)
Sainio, Panu, Lic.Sc. (Tech.), Chief
6. KTR. ROTEX [WWW] Engineer
http://www.ktr.com/root/img/pool/ Phone: +358 50 567 8396
pdf/produktkataloge/en/en_gesamt/001_r E-mail: [email protected]
otex_en.pdf (2.3.2014)

7. Altairnano. 24 V 60 Ah Battery
Module [WWW]
http://www.altairnano.com/wp-content/
uploads/2011/10/60Ah-DataSheet.pdf
(2.3.2014)

310

View publication stats