Niklas Eriksson wrote:The Poclain 160 excavator had an opperation weight of around 30 ton.
I hadnt heard of Poclains for a while, so wondered in they had gone to iron heaven.
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But that said they
did provide the innovaton that made the modern excavator possible and in some ways resulted on most of the American manufactuers going out of business to be replaced by various Asian manufacturing companies.
What Poclain developed was the high pressure hydraulic system. Here in the US Poclains of the 1970s had a bad reputation for reliability and a reputation for repairs being very expensive when they were needed because of the high pressure hydraulics. However, when the early 1980s hit all the US folks disappeared to be replaced by Asian machines which were far more patterned after the Poclain than any of the American machines that they displaced all of which were low pressure systems.
the much higher working pressures within the hydraulics allowed the machines to be radically downsized because all the plumbing and cylinders could be much smaller---or if you want to look at it the otherway---the same weight machine could be much more powerful.
Among the things that Poclalin developed was the wobble plate hydrualic motor, and we even have a hydro-drive log skidder that uses those wheel motors directly in the while with the tire bolted to the motor with no gear train or planatary reduction..... Very amazing technology.
But alas, it is not uncommon for those who innovate not to survive to benefit from their innovation.