Kobelco’s Integrated noise & dust reduction cooling system.

Kobelco’s proprietary iNDr system is the world’s most advanced cooling system that minimises noise and dust penetration.

The iNDr cooling system is designed to achieve:

• Improved cooling capacity for hydraulic excavators

Hydraulic excavators move with a lot of power that’s generated by a large engine. As a result, it will overheat the engine if it is not adequately cooled. Several cooling components are built into the design like the radiator, oil cooler and intercooler. A hydraulic excavator stays pretty much in one place, so it needs a fast-spinning fan to provide the cooling components with the wind they need. Kobelco’s iNDr system creates a wind pathway that naturally introduces air into the system with a fan located further inside the machine. This makes it possible to control heat, dust and noise. This is what sets the iNDr system apart from conventional systems.

• Ultimate- low-noise

Excavators make noises in many different ways, including the sound of the engine, the hydraulic system and travel noise. The proportion of the total noise accounted for the cooling fan is quite large. With most excavators, the fan is located just inside the intake port to maximise airflow, which means the sound of the fan can be heard directly outside of the machine. To solve this problem Kobelco has moved the fan further in so that there’s no direct line between the fan and the outside air. As a result, noise generated by the engine and the fan hits several duct walls and loses much of the sound before reaching the outside.

At present, Kobelco stands with pride by achieving a noise reduction level of more than 10dB. A decrease of 10dB reduces sound energy to one-tenth its previous level and sounds less than half as loud to the average listener. As a result, Kobelco succeeded in building the world’s first ultra- quite excavators.

• Clean operation

Hydraulic excavators are built to dig dirt and can spend many hours on a dry day operating in a cloud of dust. If the cooling components get clogged with dust, it leads to overheating. To solve this problem, the duct environment created by Kobelco’s iNDr system is kept almost completely dust-free. This keeps the cooling components running at top efficiency and also keeps the air cleaner at the engine’s intake port. By removing the dust problem at the source, reliability has been improved and the machine is easier to maintain and clean. The high density 60- mesh filter blocks out the dust when the outside air goes inside.

Low noise and dust reduction are two features in demand for every hydraulic excavator, regardless of size. iNDr is the dream and  Kobelco iNDr will continue to be a first-class success story.