In 2019, the European Union’s new regulatory requirements on emissions for non-road diesel engines will come into effect, and operators of GSE working within the ambit of those regulations will need to be in full compliance; Cummins already offers a number of engines that will meet the even more stringent Stage V regulations, and three of them were on display at inter airport
The three engines that Cummins had on show at the exhibition were the F3.8, L9 and X12 models, engines that are suitable for a variety of ground support equipment from aircraft tow tractors and cargo loaders to plane de-icers and snow blowers. Spanning a range of 100 to 512hp (74 to 382kW), they are said by Cummins to offer higher power and torque than their Stage IV predecessors.
The F3.8 and L9 engines benefit from Cummins Single Module™ aftertreatment system, which achieves higher NOx conversion efficiency than previous models, due to a high-flow dosing capability. It removes 99.9% of particulate material by weight and count. The system is smaller and lighter than equivalent Stage IV packages. The X12 engine uses the Cummins SCR/DPF aftertreatment carried over from Stage IV.
“Our highly efficient engines up to 430hp have no need for an Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system,” said Sjoerd Spronck, a communications and media co-ordinator at Cummins, so there is no need for this particular component. “No EGR means there is less to cool, which will help lower the cost of OEM integration,” noted Jeroen van Ginneken, Cummins’ off-highway engine sales leader, Europe. “It also means there is less to go wrong, providing inherently lower maintenance costs.”
Stop-start technology is another feature of these Stage V engine, enabling fuel savings of between 5% and 15% depending on the idling time of a given piece of equipment, Cummins estimates. “In the ground support sector, stop-start technology is expected to make a big impact,” van Ginneken observed. “With operators currently not authorised to turn off the machines when they are deemed to be operational due to strict handling operations procedures, the introduction of stop-start technology is expected to deliver significant cost savings.”
The engines are also enabled for wireless connectivity, able to provide real-time engine diagnostics.
“Working with ground support equipment manufacturers we are able to tailor product for their specific requirements,” explained van Ginneken. “The main challenges to our airport customers continue to be reducing the total cost of ownership, increasing up-time and ensuring that their operations meet strict global regulations on emissions. We recognise the demand for flexibility to match the varied applications of their engine requirements while achieving maximum operational productivity at minimum life cycle cost. The Stage V engines are more adaptive than ever for different machine-load demands and applications.”
Commitment
It was not the first time that these engines had been seen at a big exhibition – they were first put on show at the huge bauma trade fair for the construction, building materials, mining machines and construction vehicles segments in April 2016. But, Spronck explained, Munich in October represented the first time they had been exhibited at an aviation event.
In so doing, Cummins demonstrated its commitment to the airside industry, he said, which represents a niche but important market for the US-headquartered manufacturing giant. “We have global manufacturing and support capability which helps us push further into this market,” Spronck noted.
There has certainly been plenty of interest in Stage V technology, he confirmed, given the impending regulatory changes, and this is part of the growing interest in Cummins’ off-highway engines more generally amongst GSE manufacturers (it already counts some big GSE supplies like Kalmar, Goldhofer and TLD amongst its customer base). As 2019 approaches, that interest is only likely to grow.
