Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Kcm

Hidekazu Matsuba

Makoto Baino

Masaaki Higashi

Kenji Yoshimura

Makoto Azuma

Yunosuke Kobayashi

Nobuo Hamada

Soichirio Bando

Koji Nishiumi

Susumu Harada

A construction machine comprises an electric motor/generator; an engine; an epicyclic gearing for rotating the electric motor/generator reversely when speed of a rotation output to a drive wheel is zero during running of the engine; a transmission configured to switch between a forward driving gear position and a backward driving gear position; and a controller for controlling the engine, the electric motor/generator and the transmission, based on at least an accelerator opening, and a state of charge in an electric storage device; the controller being configured to switch the forward driving gear position or the backward driving gear position to a direction opposite to a direction in which the construction machine is moving, and cause the electric motor/generator to generate reverse torque in a power running mode, when the electric storage device is in a fully charged state and the accelerator has been pressed down by a driver.

Construction machine and control method thereof

A construction machine comprises an electric motor/generator coupled to an electricity accumulator, an engine, a transmission coupled to drive wheels, an epicyclic gearing for coupling an output shaft of the electric motor/generator, an output shaft of the engine, and an input shaft of the transmission, the engine torque and/or the generator torque being transmitted to drive wheels, a clutch for directly coupling two among the output shaft of the electric motor/generator, the output shaft of the engine, and the input shaft of the transmission, and a controller configured to, under a condition in which the clutch is in an off-state, control engine speed based on the degree to which the accelerator is open and on the amount of electricity in the electricity accumulator, to control shifting of the transmission gear position based on the accelerator opening degree, operational state of the generator, and the electricity amount.

Growing community of inventors

Akashi, Japan

Hidekazu Matsuba