Electrification of the steering - an efficient and safe solution for commercial vehicles?

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Electrification of the steering - an efficient and safe solution for commercial vehicles?

Brunner, Gabriel / Negele, Klaus

This article deals with standard steering in commercial vehicles and the different variants. The design criteria with regard to the performance of the power steering and the performance arising in service are compared. In an advance development project of MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG we began to develop a partelectrical steering system in 2003. Here we discuss the results of this development and a subsequent examination of electrical power steering in commercial vehicles. The system developed at MAN, named ECO steering, consists of an electrical 24 V power drive on the steering gear and the conventional steering hydraulics which for high steering forces are swi tched as required via a mechanical clutch. The regulation of the electric motor and the switching on and off of the clutch for the steering hydraulics have been matched. The ECO steering system mounted on the steering test bench was coupled with the vehicle drive on the driveline test bench. Consumption measurements were carried out on various routes for a conventional steering system and for the ECO steering. In this article it has been shown that fuel savings of about 0.2 to 0.35 l/100km can be achieved in commercial vehicles by means of an EPS system. It has also been shown that this leads to effective intervention in the transversal tracking of the vehicle. Two main goals of all developments in the commercial vehicle sector have thus been achieved, i.e. fuel savings and increased safety. As with all new developments implementation in the vehicle is slowed down on account of the high developmental expenditure and higher initial costs. Increasing fuel costs are leading to the development and market launch of electrical systems. These require a more powerful on-board network which also covers the requirement of the EPS system.