27.09.2010

Research funding for Gottwald

The Gottwald subsidiary of Demag Cranes, REFU Elektronik and the Institute for Vehicle Technology (Institut fur Kraftfahrzeuge) at Aachen University have formed a consortium to research alternative and more energy efficient drive systems for cranes and heavy loads.

The consortium will receive €1.17 million of funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research which will be matched by the other two partners.

The two year project is part of the German governments programme to consolidate and expand Germany's technological leadership in the field of
"Information and communication technologies".

The consortium, which will be led by Demag Cranes, plans to develop a system solution for energy-efficient drive trains which will be applicable to both heavy goods vehicles and machines handling heavy loads.

The company says that current diesel-electric drive trains are not optimised enough in terms of energy efficiency to allow them to be used in vehicles where the output demands vary dramatically.
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The aim is to achieve a significant increase in the energy efficiency of the drive trains involving fuel savings of at least 25 percent.

"By achieving the anticipated savings due to alternative drive trains, we will be sustainably reducing the operating costs of heavy goods vehicles on the one hand and, on the other, making a valuable contribution to making our products more environmentally compatible", said Thomas H. Hagen, Demag board member with responsibility for Industrial Cranes and Port Technology.

The project will include hybrid drives, optimised diesel-electric drive trains and storage media for electrical energy. The power-electronic components will be supplied by REFU Elektronik.