Equipmake Holdings (LSE:EQIP) told investors it has reached a key milestone in Project Coeus, its collaboration with Perkins, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar, as the hybrid power unit developed under the programme begins installation for machine testing.
Project Coeus is a three-year programme led by Perkins in partnership with Equipmake and Loughborough University's Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, backed by £11.14 million of UK Government funding through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, of which £3.24 million was awarded to Equipmake.
The programme is developing a fuel-configurable hybridised industrial open power unit for off-highway machinery, combining a configurable spark-ignited Perkins engine with Equipmake's heavy-duty electric motor, silicon carbide inverter and power electronics, designed as a direct replacement for a diesel power unit that can run on hydrogen, ethanol, methanol or bio-methane without requiring manufacturers to redesign their machines.
The unit is now being installed in a Terex Ecotec TDS 820 high-performance shredder, following development testing and its first public showing at CONEXPO-CON/AGG five months ago, and will undergo testing at Perkins' proving site to assess whether it meets the machine's peak-load and transient-response demands.
"Moving from the test cell into a machine as demanding as a high-performance shredder is exactly the proving ground this technology needs," said Ian Foley, chief executive of Equipmake, adding that "this milestone shows the strength of just one of our collaborations with Caterpillar."
The progress comes as Equipmake has pointed to growing business-development activity with Caterpillar as a significant channel, alongside a live order book exceeding £8 million for delivery in the current financial year and a second half that generated £6.8 million in revenue at roughly 38% gross margin, management having said that momentum has carried into the new financial year.
Equipmake, which supplies electric powertrain technology across off-highway, on-highway and aerospace and defence markets, is due to publish audited results for the year ended 31 May in October.