Fuel efficient hybrid excavator design

1173 Sunward has focussed particularly on building small-medium sized machines, said Li Lihong of the firm. An innovative development from Sunward is its new hybrid excavator design. This 22.6tonne machine has been developed with a view to offering lower fuel consumption than conventional excavators in its size class. As fuel prices are high in China, a hybrid machine offers incentives to the customer base and is said to be most effective in operations requiring slewing, such as for production truck loading. Power for Sunward’s SWE230S hybrid comes from a Tier3/Stage IIIA compliant diesel while the electrical system runs at 300-400V. Other features include a maximum slew speed of 12rpm, a 1.06m3 bucket as standard, a 10.05m maximum dig radius and a 6.73m maximum dig depth.