Kawasaki K3VL and K3VLS Series Pumps with Power Shift Control

April 20, 2017

Rock Able | April 20th, 2017

With today’s ever changing demands on hydraulics and the advent of new Tier 4 engine, the need to vary the input torque of hydraulic pumps becomes evident. When the engine is operating at low idle, available torque is low and can be stalled. Using the Power Shift regulator, input torque to the pump can be limited to prevent engine overload and stalling at varying engine speeds and output power. Optimizing the horsepower input demands of the pump can result in significant savings in fuel consumption and emission output. Kawasaki Power Shift is a low-cost alternative that maximizes machine versatility and can be retrofit into existing machine design platforms. It reduces fuel consumption, emissions, and noise. Being able to operate at lower RPM with maximum efficiency, a significant reduction in cooling demands and overall machine wear will be realized.

Figure 1

From Figure 1 we can see that as engine speed varies, available output torque varies as well. To prevent engine stall, the input torque requirement of the pump must change accordingly.

Figure 2

A torque limiter with Power Shift allows the pump to always operate at the maximum available torque. The pump can be set for various power levels for improved fuel economy or maximum performance. The pump can be used with an engine speed sensing control (ESS)with the controller monitoring engine droop. Pump input power is reduced to allow the engine to quickly recover preventing overload, at any speed.