Posted on 06/12/2009 7:19:45 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
This big dozer, the Caterpillar D7E, is the first to use a hybrid power train.(Credit: CNET)
On the way to a demonstration of Caterpillar's first hybrid dozer, I was expecting it would be one of the little ones, the kind used to dig pools and landscape suburban back yards. But looming up in the middle of Holt of California, a Caterpillar dealer outside Sacramento, Calif., was a huge beast, a massive yellow earth mover, the metal tracks of which came up to my waist. The Caterpillar D7E was a lot bigger than the little hybrid I was expecting.
A Caterpillar representative jumped in the cab and, metal tracks scraping up the clean concrete floor, pivoted the big dozer around and drove it out to the demonstration area, a field of dirt with one big hill, and strategically placed holes and trenches--not to mention a slalom course marked by orange pylons. As a dramatic start to the demonstration, the driver took the 56,669 pound D7E over the steepest section of the hill, the dozer's blade pointing up toward the sky. At the top, it neatly balanced on the crest before making its descent, demonstrating how easily it maintained control on this loose ground.
The D7E differs from traditional earth-moving equipment in that it uses a locomotive-style series hybrid drivetrain.
(Excerpt) Read more at reviews.cnet.com ...
But General Electric and EMD have developed Hybrid's that have banks of batteries in them that Store the electrical power into them.. then are applied to the traction motors as the engineer directs.
But this is all new stuff.. and I only have heard of the BNSF Railway experimenting with one or two switchers with this technology.
But, but Obma told the mining communities he loved coal and was committed to clean coal technologies...
Glass Engines, Remember the Vega and teflon lining in the cylinders. HF also built with fiberglass.
barbra ann
Diesel driving a generator driving the traction would be.
The dirty little secret is “hybrid drivetrain’s†are hundred year old technologies
Oh GMAFB
Cooool.
Now that's my idea of a roto-tiller.
The Diesel drives a Alternator producing electrical power to the traction motors in a regular Diesel Electric Locomotive. When the Engineer operates the throttle.. the Diesel engine engages..produces power that goes to the traction motor on the wheels.
A Hybrid version would be.. the Engineer engages the throttle.. which produces power which goes to the traction motors initially.. but also charges the banks of batteries. When the engineers needs the power he can apply to the engine such as in the GE Evolution Locomotive.. Or in a present switcher.. the batteries is what is charged and the engineer engages the throttle to run the traction motors from that bank of batteries..
Links below: http://ge.ecomagination.com/products/evolution-hybrid-locomotive.html
http://www.tc.gc.ca/programs/environment/ecofreight/casestudies/images/idc2-eng.gif
Clean coal = no coal.
I anyone had said we were riding a hybrid there would probably have been a fight.
R.G. LeTourneau, industrialist and inventor powered his mighty earth moving scrapers “Tournapulls” with electric motors on each wheel. The unit was steered by a central electric motor between tractor and scraper. Incredible engineering from an incredible man.
As a talented engineer/physicist I invented a perpetual motion machine, just like ALgore invented the internet. Now .. if I can only figure out how to get it started .......
Sorry about that, post #33 was intended for tube.
I know about KeTourneau and I'm in central Illinois....Caterpillar country.
I have a LeTourneau Westinghouse road grader :)
This isn’t a “hybrid” it is a diesel-electric, the same drive they use in Locomotives. The diesel engine runs all the time, not just when the batteries run down as happens in a hybrid car, the diesel runs a generator which is used to power the electric drive motors. Old technology.
LeTourneaus are used every where. When the lumber mill in my area used to operate(from 1945 until 1998, when the greenies caused it to be shut down and 650 jobs lost), we used LeTourneaus to haul logs from the log decks to the mills and to off load the tucks and stack the logs. Huge puppies and fun to drive.
Where are the solar panels to power that bulldozer ? ( Sarcasm ) ...
Turbines?????
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