Just because the cost of diesel fuel isn’t high right now doesn’t mean fleets can’t benefit from saving fuel—delayed or canceled work due to the Covid pandemic means margins are tight—so every dollar counts.
Many excavator operators operate full throttle, all out, all the time, but excavator manufacturers have baked technology into their machines that allows operators to do their jobs without using the fuel involved with constant, high rpm operation.
“Operators tend to select the highest work mode available, not realizing the task could be achieved at a much lower rpm without any loss in performance or cycle times,” says Sung Sook Kim, product manager, mid-sized excavators, Volvo CE.
Volvo, and many other excavator makers, have established work modes as a means to keep productivity and efficiency high while saving fuel, and perhaps wear and tear on engines and hydraulics. They may have different names and associated settings, but the goals are the same.
“As an example, Volvo excavators have nine settings within four work modes: Idle; Fine (F); General (G); and Heavy (H),” Kim says. “The G modes are excellent for digging and excavation while the two F mode settings are ideal for fine finish work such as grading and lifting work, which need more power and precise control. H provides maximum power while helping save fuel.
“Educating operators on using the right work mode can make their work easier and improve their company’s bottom line, and offering training is an effective way to get this message across,” Kim says. “Our website includes good information on our work modes, but one of the best ways to educate operators and managers is through training programs like our EcoOperator Training classes. Many customers have seen fuel consumption and machine wear improve after these classes, and their productivity usually remains the same or increases. It’s helpful to experience it in person when possible.”
Doosan also relies on training to teach the right technology habits. It’s a top-down endeavor.
“Doosan works with its dealers to help train them on proper equipment operation,” says Aaron Kleingartner, product and dealer marketing manager for Doosan. “The dealers, in turn, work directly with their customers and their operators to train them. Some dealers and customers look at data from the machines and track trends among equipment operators. For example, a customer may have an operator who always operates the machine in ‘full throttle.’ If that’s the case, the customer can show the operator, using telematics data, that the operator is wasting fuel and burning through warranty hours.”
Kleingartner also provides practical operating examples and suggests a sort of “test run” with the technology.
“When excavator operators are loading loose material from a pile or doing light-duty attachment work, the machine’s regular work mode is sufficient,” he says. “Another example is operating a breaker. It doesn’t require the operator to run the machine in full throttle to be effective with the breaker. Customers can set their excavator’s system to match the efficiency of the breaker to the machine. That helps to minimize over-speeding the breaker, and it helps the machine and the attachment work hand-in-hand.
“If an operator is still skeptical about fuel savings, the company can ask the operator to work in one mode one week,” Kleingartner says. “Then, the next week, switch to a different mode. After two weeks, the company can use the machine data and show the operator the savings in regular mode.”
Justin Steger, solutions marketing manager, site development & underground, with John Deere, stresses that any technology needs to be easy to deal with.
“It’s recognized that North American operators typically like to operate ‘full throttle,’ but if you can give them simple work modes such as Eco, Power, or even High Power—the easier the better—that’s the first step to saving fuel and lowering operating cost,” Steger says.
“The next step is providing enough hydraulic power even at a lower rpm, even in ECO mode, where the operator doesn’t worry about what rpm they’re running at; all they worry about is productivity and having enough power available,” Steger says.
“Hydraulic tuning is a big part of that and something John Deere focuses on to maximize as much as possible,” Steger continues. “For those tough applications or materials, sometimes you need a little more breakout force or lift power. Deere offers a power boost button on some models to give the operator an 8-second boost of hydraulic power on demand.”
Here’s how Takeuchi teaches operators its technology.
“Takeuchi offers three work modes: ECO mode, High mode, and Standard mode,” says the company’s national product and training manager, Keith Kramlich. “Persuading operators to use the working modes appropriately can be challenging. We start by explaining the fuel savings they can get by using ECO mode and how less frequent fuel stops result in more production time. It’s tough to get some operators to understand that working at a slower engine speed can be the right choice depending on the situation.
“We teach that determining which work mode is optimal for a particular application depends on two things: 1) operator preference; and 2) job goal,” Kramlich says.
[First, on operator preference,] we can tell operators over and over that they should use ECO mode but if they don’t like it, they aren’t going to use it,” Kramlich says. “ECO mode decreases the angle of the swash plate inside the hydraulic pump, putting less load on the engine. In addition, it changes some engine parameters.
“Though the machine still performs well, the purpose is to conserve fuel, so operators will feel a slight decrease in performance,” Kramlich says. “This working mode is good for new operators whose experience and productivity would not be limited by it. An experienced operator could operate in a manner where their productivity level exceeds the efficiency gained by using this working mode.”
Second, Kramlich suggests examining what the job goal truly is.
“Is the goal to get the job done ASAP or at the lowest cost? In many cases it is both, and we explain to operators that what may feel like less productivity will normally result in cost savings—and only a small difference in job completion times,” Kramlich says.
Finally, some OEMs will urge operators to simply look at the monitor in the cab for hints on how to best use available tech.
“Komatsu excavators include ecology guidance information on the machine’s LCD monitor,” says Andrew Earing, Komatsu product manager.
“This technology informs operators when E mode can be used to reduce fuel consumption. The technology also alerts operators when the machine is being operated inefficiently. For example, if during operation the hydraulic oil flows over relief for more than three seconds, a message will inform the operator so they can adjust their operation to be more efficient,” Earing says.
