See It At
Initially developed for Euro 6 and hybrid
buses, Turolla’s electrohydraulic power
steering (EPHS) is getting more popular
for other on- and off-highway projects. It is
one of three recent innovations being manufactured at Turolla’s new plant in Castel
San Pietro Terme, near Bologna, Italy.
Consolidating
And RAMPING UP
Turolla’s new Italian plant consolidates its European manufacturing and sees production
of several new products
BY ROBERTA PRANDI
T
urolla — one of the three
companies that compose the
Stand-Alone Division of Danfoss Power Solutions — recently inaugurated a new 6900 m2
plant in Castel San Pietro Terme, near
Bologna, Italy. The company’s main
business is the development and
manufacturing of gear products —
from the plant in Italy and from a plant
in Ames, Iowa, U.S.A. — with global
sales in 2014 of about €56 million.
Riccardo Carra, vice president and
general manager of Turolla, said that
the new plant outside of Bologna represents the consolidation of Turolla’s
European manufacturing activities, allowing the company to double production volumes in Italy and achieve an
increase in sales from the Italian plant
that is expected to reach about €11
million this year. Turolla said that Italy
Diesel Progress International
is an important market for the whole
Danfoss Group, currently ranking fifth.
“Turolla was carrying out its European production from another plant in
Italy and one in Slovakia,” Carra said.
“We are very proud of the fact that
the management of Danfoss Power
Solutions accepted our project to concentrate production in Bologna — not
an easy decision given Italy’s current
economic climate but as it turned out,
a winning one.”
Carra said that the company moved
production from Slovakia to Italy
ahead of schedule — less than one
year from the start of the project to the
first pump produced in the new plant.
The operation also met the planned
investment, he said.
“The production approach in the
Bologna plant has been changed,
with the outsourcing of all machining
operations to a trusted Italian partner,” Carra said. “The same partner
also took over the machining portion
of Turolla’s plant in Slovakia, so that
it was possible to retain almost all the
experienced local workforce.”
Massimo Dovesi, Turolla’s global
sales and marketing director, explained
that the new plant would manufacture
three of the most recent and major
product innovations in Turolla’s portfolio. One is a new low-noise pump called
the shhark — a new concept presented
in early 2014 and currently completing
field-testing with several customers,
some of which have already validated
the component for their machines.
Dovesi confirmed that serial production
of the shhark pumps will begin in the
new plant in November 2015.
“During the development phase of
continued on page 42
40 October 2015
See It At Agritechnica
The new 6900 m2 Turolla plant near Bologna, Italy, consolidates the company’s
European manufacturing. Turolla had been carrying out its European production
from another plant in Italy and one in Slovakia.
the new low-noise shhark pumps, we
set a noise reduction target of at least
4 dB(A), which meant a noise level
equal or lower to that of comparable
competitors’ pumps,” Dovesi said.
“It was fundamental in our project to
maintain the same specifications as
in our standard gear pumps — same
efficiency, speed, maximum pressure,
operating temperature, durability, to
name a few. Above all, though, our target was for the shhark pumps to maintain the reduced noise level over time.”
Dovesi said that the reduction in noise
level has been tested up to 500 hours
and the results have been impressive.
Conventional low-noise pumps typically
see a major drop in noise performance
within the first 500 hours of operation,
but Dovesi said that the shhark pumps
have demonstrated an ability to maintain low-noise performance over time.
“Customers’ reactions have been
very positive in the segments we have
tested so far, as for example compacting and paving machines, agricultural
tractors (where the steering pump is
mounted in the cabin) and compact
wheel loaders,” he said.
Additional targets for the shhark
Diesel Progress International
noise-reduction technology are material handling applications, such as
forklifts, scissor lifts and aerial lifts,
Dovesi said, with very strong demand
also coming from manufacturers of
earthmoving equipment.
“We were sort of surprised by the
interest shown by the market of earthmoving machinery,” Dovesi said. “Obviously, operator’s comfort has become an issue also in this segment,
because more comfort for the operator translates into longer and more efficient working shifts. This is why the
shhark technology will be transferred
also to our D pumps, a series of castiron pumps which are much used in
some specific markets, including
earthmoving equipment.”
The next innovation highlight rolling off the new plant’s assembly lines
is Turolla’s electrohydraulic power
steering (EHPS), a solution that was
presented in 2014 (see September
2014 Diesel Progress) and is now in
series production.
“The EHPS is particularly significant
for us, as it marks the move for our
company from designing and delivering single components to offering com-
plete solutions,” Dovesi said. “In the
case of the EHPS, we deliver a pump,
an electric motor and an inverter. This
is a solution that was first developed
for Euro 6 and hybrid buses — a growing segment. It can be used, though,
in any application where pump oil flow
needs to be independent from the
combustion engine speed.
“The EHPS brings more efficiency
to the steering system with power
modulability. The circuit is also simplified; as you have a compact system
housed under the bus driver’s seat,
rather than a pump operated from the
engine compartment with pipes running all across the vehicle’s body.”
Dovesi said that besides bus applications, the EHPS is being offered for
other projects in the on-highway market and is in discussion with original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in
the off-highway market.
Finally, the third product manufactured at the Castel San Pietro Terme
plant is the ultracompact fan drive —
a package that contains both proportional and reversing valves for the fan
— that has been in series production
since mid-2014.
“This solution allows the fan to be
operated also in reverse direction for
cleaning purposes,” Dovesi said. “The
true highlight of this product is that the
fan drive motor and valves package
are integrated in the gear motor cover,
so that installation and maintenance
costs are reduced. Also, the compact
package is a standard solution that
OEMs can install across all vehicles
in their range.”
According to Dovesi, Turolla is
proud of the results of the production
to the new Bologna-area plant and
has good expectations for positive
future business performance. He said
that Turolla has posted reasonable
growth in 2014 and has a positive
view for 2015, as well. dpi
For More information
www.turollaocg.com
42 October 2015