Pektron collaborates with JCB and WMG

Pektron collaborated with JCB and WMG on an Off-Highway Intelligent Power Management project.

The project, part funded by Innovate UK, enables JCB to produce machines which will use significantly less fuel and emit fewer CO₂ emissions, while maintaining business performance in an evolving market.  The system developed senses when the machine is idle and can make the decision to auto stop, providing optimal energy efficiency and minimal pollution.

Representatives from JCB, Pektron and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) gathered to share the success of the 2-year project, with JCB looking to introduce its intelligent machines.

Having worked within the Off-Highway sector for many years, engineers at Pektron designed and developed the ECU components, hardware and core software solutions to support the software application which was developed by JCB.

This collaborative approach is typical of how Pektron works with its customers and has delivered positive results all round. Everyone involved agreed:

“Being able to extend our control and systems modelling expertise into the off-highway sector and to work with both JCB and Pektron engineers has made this a really exciting and rewarding project to be a part of and one where the research has the potential to deliver real impact for all partners”. Dr James Marco, expert in Hybrid and Electric Vehicles at WMG

“This collaborative project between JCB, WMG and Pektron has helped to identify and develop future technologies that can improve the efficiency of many off-highway machines. The novel technology has shown great promise when tested over a variety of real-world duty cycles”.                                   Lee Harper, Principal Engineer at JCB

“Working with JCB and WMG on a research project like this is a little different to the norm for Pektron, but our on-site test facilities and years of engineering expertise in this sector leant itself perfectly to this project and we are delighted to have been involved.”                                              Robert Morgan, Engineering Director at Pektron

Together, experts within each of the partner companies looked at:

• Combining ‘big-data’ analysis with off-highway vehicle specific simulation and modelling to identify machines and duty cycles that will benefit most from mild-hybrid technology
• Generating specific control-algorithms for off-highway vehicles which have very different use cases to cars & trucks
• Development of specialist power-management hardware for off-highway vehicles to cope with much harsher operating conditions.

The resulting solution should be available in the market in 2020.