Why Do Hydraulics Need to Be More Efficient?

17.12.2020 | written by Gabi Olpp

Mr. Peitsmeyer, why do we need our hydraulics to be more efficient?

Dierk Peitsmeyer: In December 2019, the German government adopted the Energy Efficiency Strategy 2050, and the EU is planning something similar with the “Green Deal” initiative. It has been recognized that the CO₂ reduction targets cannot be achieved without further legislative measures and subsidies. By 2030, the German government wants to reduce primary energy consumption by 30 % compared with 2008. The EU Parliament has now even decided on 60 % compared with 1990. Germany also needs to make much faster progress if it is to meet the annual savings commitments for 2020-2030 set out in Article 7 of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive. The “Efficiency First” principle is intended to help in this respect.

Conventional hydraulic systems incur high energy costs that often even exceed the original investment amount. Why do businesses barely react to this?

Dierk Peitsmeyer: The hydraulics industry has actually done its homework and has now developed many efficient, energy-saving solutions. But these solutions are not achievable for the price of a traditional solution. Because the energy costs are only incurred while the plants are actually being operated, they go to a different cost center than the one used for the initial costs when the plant is purchased. This is why the purchasing department usually still decides on the basis of the pure “up front” price of the machine and does not consider the overall costs during operation, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

How can the AX technology from Bucher Hydraulics contribute to achieving the CO₂ targets?

Dierk Peitsmeyer: Decentralized linear drives can provide the ideal help in meeting the requirements of the Energy Efficiency Strategy 2050. The AX pumps guarantee reliable operation with high performance and low power loss. At the same time, we still keep all the well-known advantages of the hydraulic cylinder. We set out to demonstrate this performance by building a world-first inverse pendulum rig with an inertial carriage weight of 1.2 tonnes. The hydraulics swing the pendulum to top dead center and then balance it there smoothly. This means that manufacturers of machines that require high forces have at their disposal an excellent subsystem for solving their linear drive tasks. By the way, 2030 will be here sooner than we think!