Parker Hannifin offers “smart” options to electrify hydraulics

Parker Hannifin’s new range of Configured ePumps and inverters offer OEM customers “smart” electrification alternatives. (Photo: Diesel Progress staff)

Parker Hannifin believes there’s plenty of life left in hydraulic systems. But today’s OEMs are seeking a broader range of options to meet changing industry demands.

“We do not believe that hydraulics will go away in construction vehicles; it will for sure be there for a long time. But we are giving our customers options on how they can electrify the hydraulic work function, which means decoupling the hydraulic pump from the diesel engine,” said Frank Durban, division marketing & commercial manager – Electric Motion & Pneumatic Division, Parker Hannifin.

As such, the company showed a new range of “smart” electrification products at the Bauma exhibition, including the Configured ePump, a preconfigured hydraulic pump and electric motor package. “You can buy these components from us on a catalog component basis, but now we have taken it to the next level and offer it as a packaged subassembly,” said Durban. “You can select your configuration of pump and motor and it comes pre-tested, preconfigured and preassembled as one unit.”

The Configured ePump line offers a hydraulic pump and electric motor pre-tested, preconfigured and preassembled in a single package. (Photo: Diesel Progress staff)

A major advantage is the elimination of the need to tie together the components. “If you buy a pump and motor [separately], you would have to connect the two. It means you have to get a coupling. You have to have some kind of bellhousing to mount the two. So, it’s adding cost. It’s more labor intensive to mount the products. It’s also adding inertia to the system,” Durban pointed out.

With the Configured ePump, there is less inertia, which translates to greater energy efficiency and higher performance for the application, he stated. There is also greater product reliability.

“Because this is all pre-tested in our factory, you as a customer have the peace of mind that the pump and motor you get work together in a very efficient way.”

Functional safety built in

Durban said the objective with the new product range is not to replace hydraulics but to enhance them. Take the latest generation of mobile inverters.

The Global Vehicle Inverter (GVI) product family extends from 75 kW to 250 kW, providing scalability to meet specific application needs. First launched at the previous Bauma, the new generation displayed at this year’s event integrates functional safety features meeting both ISO 26262 on-road and EN ISO 13849 off-road standards.

The Global Vehicle Inverter (GVI) product family extends from 75 kW to 250 kW, providing scalability to meet specific application needs. (Photo: Diesel Progress staff)

“Whether you are a truck manufacturer looking for an E-PTO solution or a construction vehicle builder that designs off-road vehicles, you may have very different requirements on your functional safety standards. However, this product does it all. It’s one product that complies with multiple standards, which reduces the complexity at the OEMs because they could use just one platform for all their needs,” Durban said.

Other adjustments have been made based on customer feedback. “We listened a lot to the customers who have been using our previous generation and did small tweaks and modifications to make [the inverters] even more user friendly,” said Durban. For example, a single plug for the motor signal connection and IO and sensor connections has now been split into two separate plugs.

“That used to be all in one plug, which made it more difficult for the customers to design their cabling harness and their wiring,” Durban said. “Our response to that with the second generation was we split it into two connectors – one goes to the motor, the other to the machine controller – and it makes it much more user friendly now to design the cabling.”

Data integrity has been built into the inverters, as well. “Connectivity becomes an increasingly important topic in the mobile market and one of the built-in features of this product is cybersecurity,” said Durban. “We have features built in that allow the customer to secure the whole machine and the whole system.”

The result of these and other “tweaks” is a product range designed to meet OEM requirements now and for the foreseeable future. As Durban noted, “We just took a good product and made it even better to fit the needs of our customers.”