Artemis leads the hydraulic pack with digital displacement

In confirmed third-party tests, the UK Energy Saving Trust, a grant supplier for the project, says Artemis’ prototype BMW 530i hydraulic series hybrid, outfitted with HEDDAT (High Efficiency Digital Displacement Automotive Transmission) technology performed with double the MPG in city tests (a start and stop environment) of the same car with a manual transmission.Artemis and the Energy Saving Trust say the performance of the BMW prototype, including highway driving, revealed 30% lower CO2 emissions before the company fitted the hydraulic transmission.

Dr Niall Caldwell, a senior engineer with the company since its inception in 1994, said it was  difficult to compare the performance of a Artemis hydraulic transmission to the technology of an electric hybrid. “Whenever there’s a lot of starting and stopping, that’s where we’ll beat electric hybrids,” said Caldwell. “We can store energy at a faster rate.”

Artemis Digital Displacement technology replaces the port plates and swash plates in conventional hydraulic machines with computer controlled high speed solenoid valves. This enables very high operating efficiency  part-load conditions, and unprecedented control, especially in multi-service and synchronized applications.

The company claims its Digital Displacement technology replaces the port and swash plates in conventional hydraulic machines with computer-controlled high speed solenoid valves. The new hydraulic transmission technology is potentially more durable, lighter and cheaper than electric hybrids, and most vehicles will see substantially better fuel savings.

Caldwell also says the DD technology will be less expensive than a traditional hybrid, once it’s mass manufactured. Hybrid owners often complain they do not realise significant expected gas savings from their cars, but Artemis says  owners drive their vehicles too aggressively. “We have the advantage on aggressive duty cycles, and that’s where the Prius system cannot capture and return the energy at high powers,” said Caldwell. “There’s an intrinsic technological advantage when you’re driving a vehicle hard. That’s where hydraulic hybrids have a huge advantage.”

Artemis  already has licensing contracts with international manufacturers Bosch Rexroth, a Bosch company, which plans to use the company’s DD technology in on-highway vehicles, and Sauer-Danfoss APS, will use the hydraulic systems in its construction, agricultural and handling machinery.

Caldwell suggested a ten years time frame for DD to be implemented in heavy duty vehicles  and confirmed that Bosch Rexroth is currently working developing this in Germany and the U.S.

“Things move relatively quickly in the market for delivery trucks and buses compared to mass market automobiles, which work on a longer development timescale which can typically take 7-10 years,” said Caldwell. “Larger vehicles are quick to market because they are made in smaller numbers.”

Currently companies such as Deluge, Hybra Drive Systems and Next Energy  are working on developing hydraulic hybrid technology in addition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  But despite enthusiasm for hydraulic hybrids, a weak point is no fundamental technical improvement to make it work right, according to Caldwell.

Artemis was initially a spin-out of the University of Edinburgh in 1994, has been developing its hydraulic technology over the years to prove that hydraulic machines could effectively work at high speed and under high pressure. Privately funded and employee owned, the company receives funding from licensing agreements with companies like Bosch Rexroth and Sauer-Danfoss. “We’ve managed to cultivate income streams organically and are basically breaking even at the end of the year. We keep a very low profile. Until our technology is ready, we don’t tend to make a lot of noise about it."

The company has maintained over 30% annual growth for each year in the past five years and is currently speaking with investors to raise capital to continue developing their hydraulic technology, based on DD, to replace the gear boxes in wind turbines, and hopes to finalise this funding in the near term.

Artemis Intelligent Power exhibits radical hydraulic hybrid car
Artemis has been working with Dana, one of the world's largest automotive components manufacturers, to build a hybrid car with a high-tech hydraulic transmission. The programme has been supported by the Energy Saving Trust, EST, under the New Vehicle Technology Programme, NVTF, funded by the Department for Transport, DfT.

The Artemis HEDDAT project has completed its first phase, embodied in an outwardly normal diesel Ford Focus. Under the bonnet, however, this is anything but a standard car. The wheels are completely disconnected from the engine, instead driven by high-pressure oil. As the car accelerates, the engine is controlled to run at the optimum speed for the instantaneous power being demanded of it.

The fully developed car will also use its energy-storage gas-accumulator to capture and recycle braking energy. When this is charged, the car will be able to move off without the engine, allowing it to be turned off to save fuel when the vehicle is stationary. The projected fuel economy gain from all of these features will be above 30% in a production vehicle.

Hydraulic, or hydrostatic, transmissions are currently used in off-road machines, such as excavators and combine-harvesters, but have so far proved too inefficient to spread beyond this limited niche. The Artemis transmission uses new hydraulic components, developed and patented by Artemis over the past ten years, which have unparalleled efficiency.

Source: http://media.cleantech.com/
Web:http://www.artemisip.com/