Electrification of Agricultural Vehicles

Agricultural mobile machinery/vehicles are a kind of equipment made use of in farming or various other agriculture-related activities, such as harvesting. Given that the introduction of mechanized agriculture, farming machinery has been and continues to be vital in massive food manufacturing.

What’s the Agricultural Autos market size?

In 2019, the global farming machinery market was valued at USD 147 billion, with tractors being over 50% of the market share. High demand for agricultural products and increasing farm mechanization rates in developing countries have driven the growth within this industry. The cost of farm labor has a direct relationship with the percentage of the total population of a country employed in agriculture, considering simple demand-supply economics, thereby, affecting the agricultural tractors market.

What are the key arising modern technologies as well as fads in this section?

Figure 1. Megatrends in Agricultural Autos Market

Even though motorized agricultural vehicles emerged in the same generation as cars, agricultural vehicles are still primarily non-automated, non-electrified and non-digitized. With over 100 million tons of greenhouse gas emission in the European Union alone, the biggest culprit being Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) vehicles. Agricultural Tractors (ATs) is one of the key sub-segments of the NRMM witnessing the same megatrend of electrification along with precision farming and autonomous driving.

What electrification means for this section?

Integrated with precision farming and self-governing driving, the electrification yields several benefits for farmers:

Expense financial savings up to 20% on seeds and also plant foods
Cost cost savings on the fuel price as much as 90%.
Raised productivity arising from continuous driving and job procedure speed.
Financial savings on labor price.
Improved operator security and comfort.

Topologies as well as Design Instance.

There are 4 primary topologies for mild hybrid and also hybrid electric tractor based on the power shipment configuration for propulsion and global transmission, where the electric motor works together with the inner combustion engine (ICE) to improve the lorry’s fuel efficiency, or in collection with ICE to charge the battery pack. When it comes to a totally battery-powered tractor, both worldly as well as propulsion systems are driven by electric motor either together or separately.

Figure 2. Topologies of Hybrid & Full Electric Tractor.

ON Semiconductor offers a wide variety of remedies for all degrees of electrification in farming lorries. Solutions ranging from automotive-qualified Present Feeling Amplifiers (CSA), MOSFETs as well as Entrance Chauffeurs for a mild hybrid 48 V architecture. The Automotive Power Module (APM) family members allows 48 V and also high voltage applications, e.g. 48 V BSG/ISG, electric motor control, 48V-12V DC-DC converter, on-board battery charger and also HV E-Compressor for HEATING AND COOLING where Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) can be used, also. Likewise, the VE-Trac ™ Dualand VE-Trac Directaddress the obstacle of designing high power thickness scalable inverter services in innovative module remedies.

Allow’s have a better look at full electric battery-powered tractor topology. In this geography, the electrical machine is the only resource of power and also it drives both the powertrain for traction as well as the global gearset for auxiliaries and also hydraulic tons (either together or independently).

ON Semiconductor offers a wide variety of solutions for all levels of electrification in agricultural vehicles. The Automotive Power Module (APM) family enables 48 V and high voltage applications, e.g. 48 V BSG/ISG, motor control, 48V-12V DC-DC converter, on-board charger and HV E-Compressor for HVAC where Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) can be used, too.

The typical power demand is in the range of 65 kW to 250 kW, quite a wide range considering the different tasks to be performed by a tractor. In addition, the mission profile of a typical agricultural tractor demands high reliability, robustness and longevity without sacrificing the scalability and compact structural design. Featuring smart on-chip current and temperature sensors, performing low conduction and switching losses and extended reliability in comparison with gel-filled modules (up to 3x lifetime), the VE-Trac Dual can improve the inverter efficiency and reliability and satisfy the performance and longevity demand of Agricultural tractor mission profiles.

What are the crucial technological challenges dealt with by OEMs while developing the linked and also Automated lorry (CAV)?

The vital technological obstacles faced by OEMs in are CAV market are:.

High energy density source of power while preserving structural integrity and dimension and total system price;.
Performance, because very little downtime is vital for completion consumer to ensure low total expense of ownership;.
Long life of the components made use of, as these vehicles typically run for 20 years;.
Effectiveness, the mission profile is mainly off-road with atmosphere which has a higher amount of vibrations and temperature level degrees than the typical automobile.

The VE-Trac as well as SiC remedies from ON semiconductor check all the boxes when it involves these demands developing from the demanding objective account of CAVs.

Figure 3. VE-Trac ™ Twin Prolonged Life Time.

As part of the VE-Trac Twin, NVG800A75L4DSC can be proposed for such applications with 750V maximum voltage as well as 800A ranked present. Additionally, ON semiconductor provides a full ecosystem for grip inverter layout with its auto isolated high present and high-efficiency IGBT Gateway Drivers with interior galvanic seclusion, automotive-qualified communication, power monitoring and signal processing and conditioning services.

Additionally, for quick prototyping and examination, the use of the NVG800A75L4DSC-EVK package is very recommended.

ON Semiconductor with its innovative remedies will remain to resolve the difficulties of farming tractor electrification at every stage of xEV-Tractor growth.