Cometto applies hybrid power pack unit

Running a diesel engine inside a factory building is becoming more of an issue as health and safety requirements are tightened up around the world.

Heavy loads need to be moved in and out of factory buildings and diesel power is becoming increasingly incompatible with this activity. New legislation is in and on its way relating to vehicle engine exhaust emissions inside.

In Denmark, for example, employees must vacate a building where a diesel engine is running and only return after the air has been determined as sufficiently clean again. Where large wind turbine components are manufactured inside these regularly need to be fetched out for storage or onward transport. Evacuating, waiting, ventilating, etc, takes time, interrupts production and costs money plus, in the winter, you lose a load of heat out of the building which is detrimental from an environmental point of view.

Specialized tranport equipment maker Cometto has come up with a solution. A Danish wind industry customer uses SPMT to move its turbine nacelles and generators. Cometto supplied a 6-axle ModulMax SP-E transporter with electronic steering and powered by a hybrid Power Pack Unit. It combines a 186 kW diesel engine and a 100 kW electric motor and its corresponding battery pack. When the engine is running it can charge the battery.

Clean and quiet

In addition to zero exhaust emission, the sound level is below 80 dB(A). “Cometto not only exceeded the contractually agreed, purely electrical range of the hybrid PPU by double,” explained a spokesperson from the wind energy company‘s project team.

“The noise level was also reduced to below 80 dB(A). It allows employees to work inside the factory for up to eight hours without hearing protection in the immediate vicinity. This is a win-win situation across the board and we are proud to say that our team is the only wind production site in the world where the heaviest loads are moved out of the hall purely electrically. This lighthouse project will certainly set a precedent within the wind industry.”

Commenting on the tech Joachim Kolb, Cometto sales manager said, “Using hybrid technology it is now possible to drive completely emission-free within the hall with the battery pack and the electric motor and when the transport combination arrives outside, the driver can switch to the diesel engine at the touch of a button and then drive the long distances with the combustion engine.“