MODULAR HYDRAULICS
iVTInternational.com June 2019 25
How to build an
industrial vehicle
In the good old days – and
this is just a bit simplified –
PART
3
engineering started with a white
sheet of paper. And the aim was to
design the best possible component
or systems for the individual case.
Which meant: Six excavators or
forklifts of one manufacturer were
equipped with six different hydraulic
blocks, and all of them worked
extremely well.
Today, engineers are required to
make use of modules and components
that can be used for – in the best case
– a variety of machines. A shining
example of this is in the automotive
world is Volkswagen’s Baukasten
(construction set) system. Different
vehicle brands and models across the
Volkswagen Group all make use its
MQB (Modularer Querbaukasten)
platform. And now an electric vehicle
version, the MEB (Modularer
Elektroantriebs-Baukasten) is being
planned (figure 1, overleaf). The
advantages are obvious: less
engineering effort, reduced costs
because of the economy of scale,
easier and cost-efficient procurement,
and high quality of high-volume
production. However, although the
variety of physical components is
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