Automatic transmissions for special purpose vehicles
Get into gear at a lower cost
How do mobile cranes drive automatically and at low costs both on and off-road? With a ZF automatic transmission. It not only saves the crane driver the work involved in operating the clutch and shifting gears, but it also saves fuel, kilometer by kilometer.
Economic efficiency
Save fuel kilometer by kilometer. The automatic transmission selects the gears and keeps the motor steady in its most economic rpm range. Thanks to CAN communications in the new generation of transmissions, the loading, accelerating and braking situations can be taken into account in relation to other vehicle systems. Such a sparing and deliberate shifting and driving method pays off in operating and maintenance costs. And though last on this list, certainly not least is our “systems thinking,” which benefits the vehicle manufacturers from the very start. Individual transmission parts are compactly integrated into light metal housings and can be assembled simply and economically as a ZF complete system in the mobile crane.
Precision
Work down to the millimeter with heavyweight mobile cranes. In order to do that, one needs the right touch and a transmission system that operates reliably and precisely: the ZF AS Tronic. The function of the ZF AS Tronic is to translate the motor power economically to correspond to a particular driving situation. Via CAN communication the automatic transmission system is in direct exchange with the other drive systems, like the EDC motor and ABS and ASR braking systems. From information obtained about the driving state, the transmission control calculates the optimal points and degrees to change gears and gives corresponding steering commands. Faulty switching is impossible. Torque peaks are prevented. That saves fuel and is gentle on the traditional drivetrain. What’s so special about the ZF AS Tronic? The crane driver can “switch on” the automatic program at any time, even while driving, and select the gears manually. The work involved in operating the clutch and shifting gears gets yielded to the transmission. After all, whether in automatic or manual shifting mode, the driver has enough to do otherwise. Moving a little further to the right or taking a step back in the midst of lifting objects – for crane drivers equipped with the ZF AS Tronic, none of that is a problem. The entire vehicle can be repositioned in adjusting operations right from the carriage.
