New opportunities for SiC! Mercedes actually used it here
October 15, 2024
New opportunities for SiC! Mercedes actually used it here
Recently, silicon carbide has opened up a new application scenario in the automotive market - electric power extractor (ePTO), which can be widely used in trucks, commercial vehicles, construction machinery, agricultural machinery and construction equipment.
Why is silicon carbide used in electric force extractor? Which car companies have adopted it? How big is the future market space for electric power extractor?
Silicon carbide has been adopted in electric power extractor, Mercedes-Benz, Hydro Leduc, etc.
As we all know, new energy vehicles are the largest application direction of silicon carbide semiconductors, and the application scenarios include main drive electronic control, OBC/DC-DC, air conditioning compressors, fuel vehicle air compressors, PTC, relays, etc., and the application scenarios of vehicles are still expanding.
Silicon carbide has been used by several automotive companies in electric power extractor (ePTO).
According to CISSOID's October 7 announcement, their SiC motor control module is being adopted by hydraulic component manufacturer Hydro Leduc's modular ePTO and will be used to drive the hydraulic system of new energy trucks and other off-road vehicles.
According to reports, Hydro Leduc's new ePTO uses a 76 kW brushless motor ME230, and uses a 9-piston XRe series spherical piston hydraulic pump, and the motor controller uses CISSOID's three-phase 1200V/340-550A silicon carbide power module, which is suitable for applications up to 650 Vdc.
This SiC-based ePTO is a high-performance, high-efficiency electrohydraulic solution with advantages such as low noise, high efficiency, low pulsation, and high speed in self-priming mode.
In fact, back in May 2022, ZF joined forces with Mercedes-Benz Trucks to provide the latter's electric trucks with a silicon carbon-based electric power harvester system, eWorX.
According to reports, ZF's eWorX system is equipped with an electric motor with a rated power of 50 kW, an inverter and a control unit with special software, as well as a cooling system and a hydraulic pump.
Working principle driving force and market space analysis of electric power harvester
The power take-off is POWER-TAKE-OFF (PTO) in English, which is an important part of trucks, commercial vehicles, RVs, construction machinery, agricultural machinery and construction machinery, etc., mainly used to drive auxiliary functions such as hydraulic systems of special equipment such as cranes, garbage trucks and concrete mixers.
Currently, more than 70% of PTO on the market is powered by internal combustion engines. Taking a hydraulic excavator as an example, its operation process is to drive a hydraulic pump through the engine, which will generate high-pressure fluid, which in turn will drive the hydraulic cylinder to make the relevant actuator work.
As we all know, traditional trucks and non-road mobile equipment (engineering construction machinery, agricultural machinery, forestry machinery, industrial vehicles, etc.) have problems such as large fuel consumption and environmental pollution, and the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of various countries around the world have issued strict regulations to promote the electrification transformation of these vehicles and machinery to meet the requirements of energy conservation, emission reduction and green development.
As a result, power take-offs will also shift from internal combustion engines to electrification, and battery-powered electric power take-offs (ePTO) will become mainstream.
At present, there are two power extractor (ePTO) schemes on the market: pure electric and hybrid, the difference is that the former is charged by an external charging pile, and the latter is charged by an internal combustion engine, and the main principle is to convert the direct current of the battery into alternating current through the inverter, thereby driving the ePTO and making the hydraulic system work.
The advantages of ePTO are environmental and electrification trends, energy efficiency, quieter, and design flexibility.
According to the analysis of Professor Xu Bing of Zhejiang University in 2022, at present, non-road mobile machines are only a simple replacement of internal combustion engines by electric drive systems, and the hydraulic components and systems have not changed, and the technical advantages of electric motors have not been fully utilized.
With the evolution of electrification technology for special vehicles such as sanitation vehicles, dump trucks, public security fire trucks, building material mixer trucks, and hazardous chemical vehicles, ePTO will become a new blue ocean market in the future. According to Leandro Girardi, vice president of aftermarket for Eaton North America, electric specialty vehicles will grow by 35-50% per year in the future. Bosch believes that between 2023 and 2025, the penetration ratio of electrified construction machinery vehicles will be around 25%.