Hydraulic hybrids are one of the newer trends for commercial vehicles, especially those which have a lot of stops and starts in their duty cycle such as garbage collection trucks, local delivery, etc.  Lightning Hybrids has introduced a new type of lightweight hydraulic accumulator for use in vehicular applications.

The composite tanks are 1/3 the weight of the standard steel accumulators used in most hydraulic applications and this weight reduction translates to significant energy savings.  These could be further used to boost fuel savings in hydraulic hybrid systems such as that from Eaton.

The Lightning accumulators are 6,000 psi (414 bar) and range from 10 to 30 gallons in size.  These type 3 tanks consist of an aluminum lining and a spun carbon fiber wrapped shell which encompass a nitrogen gas compression bladder (see graphic).

To illustrate the weight difference of this design from an all-steel container (the standard), a 15 gallon LHI accumulator weighs 115 pounds compared to 465 pounds for a steel version.  The LHI accumulators are made in the USA and begin shipping in 60 days.  They are patent pending.

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