Global supplier of test and simulation systems MTS is at Automotive Testing Expo North America 2024 in Novi, Michigan, to launch its new hybrid SilentFlo 525 Hydraulic Power Unit (HPU) to the US market. According to the company, the innovation conserves energy, decarbonizes and extends lifecycles while enhancing test lab productivity and lowering long-term cost of operations.
Speaking to ATTI at the expo, senior business development manager Jim Hennen said that MTS Systems is committed to helping customers address global challenges and contributing to a better, safer, more sustainable world.
“Our customers rely on MTS HPUs to power their test lab operations,” he explained. “These hybrid HPUs combine two different pump technologies to amplify the benefits of both. With digital displacement pump and swash plate module options, the optimal mix can provide the greatest lab efficiency while extending pump module and HPU life.”
Technical DDP study
In 2014, MTS began a 10-year technical study of digital displacement pump (DDP) technologies. The company built and commissioned several pilot hybrid HPUs within its own facility in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. It compared the performance of MTS designs from the 1980s to the present and said it found that with proper control methods, algorithms and design configurations, the SilentFlo hybrid HPU managed the on/off stages of the modules to maximum efficiency while minimizing the inefficiencies of idle modes.
“An energy efficiency study was performed,” said Hennen, “using MTS Model 329 test rigs running a specific repeating drive file. The rig was first powered by an HPU using only swash plate pumps. The test was repeated, powered by a different HPU using only DDP. The DDP HPU consistently required 37.5% less electrical energy to produce the same flow demand.
“Over a calendar year of plant operations, the daily energy efficiency of each HPU was measured and plotted as a function of total flow per day per electrical kW consumed. The data showed that the DDP HPU was increasingly more efficient by more than 35% over the full year of highly variable and random flow demands. This analysis did not consider the additional savings in reduced cooling costs.
“An independent energy audit by the local utility company, Xcel Energy, determined that these same two HPUs working in harmony with each other saves MTS an average US$37,000 in energy, requires 2,500 fewer gallons of cooling water and reduces carbon emissions by 80,000 lb [36,300kg] per year,” Hennen added. “In January 2021, for example, MTS was awarded a US$41,000 energy rebate from the utility company.”
Product launch
Hennen says that exhibiting at Automotive Testing Expo North America was an easy choice for MTS: “The expo’s global event footprint allowed us to pre-launch the new SilentFlo 525 HPU at Automotive Testing Expo Europe and Automotive Testing Expo China earlier this year, before this official launch in Novi. We’re looking forward to showing how automotive testing lab managers will benefit from the increased efficiency and reduced energy consumption of the SilentFlo 525 HPU.”
Meet MTS at Booth 2000.
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