Engine manufacturer Ricardo normally doesn't go seeking attention from the press. While it supplies engines to everyone from the biggest heavy equipment makers to McLaren sports cars, the U.K.-based company is normally happy to keep its name off the engines of its OEMs. But Ricardo was proudly touting its new flywheel energy-storage technology at CONEXPO 2014, claiming the system will bring real-world fuel economy improvements of 10% to excavators.
"10% real-world improved fuel economy. That's for real digging in real life and real work in real holes across a range of different duty cycles," says David Rollafson, Ricardo vice president for global innovation and intellectual property.