Hyliion HE Drive Axle Wins Technical Achievement Award
From left to right: Chris Langley, VP of Fleet Relations, Hyliion; Jim Park, award committee chair; and Thomas Healy, founder and CEO, Hyliion. Photo courtesy: Jim Winsor Award committee
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A powered auxiliary axle for road tractors from Hyliion has won the 2018 Jim Winsor Memorial Technical Achievement Award, the awards committee has announced.
Called 6x4HE, the fuel-saving electric drive-axle system was selected from five finalists by an ad hoc group of industry editors writers. The award was presented during the recent Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Ga.
Heavy Duty Trucking Equipment Editor Jim Park chairs the 12-member award committee and HDT Senior Editor Jack Roberts and Senior Contributing Editor Tom Berg are also members.
The award is named in honor of the late Jim Winsor, whose journalism career spanned more than 50 years in service to the trucking industry. Winsor worked his way through college by driving cargo trucks and then served in the U.S. Army as a Transportation Corps lieutenant. He was active with the Truck Maintenance Committee, forerunner to today’s TMC. Winsor passed away in 2015 at age 81, about 10 years after retiring as Executive Editor of HDT.
To be eligible for the Jim Winsor Memorial Technical Achievement Award, a product or service has to show technical innovation, have a wide applicability and availability in trucking, and offer significant benefits.
The Hyliion electric axle, when added to a truck or tractor, acts as a hybrid system, capturing braking energy and converting it to electricity, then uses that energy to help launch the vehicle and propel it up hills. This relieves the engine of some of its usual work, saving fuel. It also reduces wear on service brakes.
The 6x4HE, consisting of an axle, a motor-generator, a lithium-ion battery pack, and electronic controls, can replace the second axle in a “live” …Read the rest of this story
