OTC 2025: Hägglunds drive system provides electric option

    April 29, 2025
    OTC Spotlight on New Technology award winner Hägglunds Fusion is a self-contained, all-inclusive drive system.
    Courtesy Bosch Rexroth Corporation
    Fusion belt feeder
    Fusion belt feeder

    By Ariana Hurtado, Editor-in-chief

     

    Hägglunds, a brand of Bosch Rexroth, was one of the recipients of OTC's 2025 Spotlight on New Technology awards for its Fusion "The Power of One" drive. 

    Fusion is a self-contained, all-inclusive drive system. The entire hydraulic drive system is mounted on the torque arm, and the company says there is no gearbox, foundation, shaft couplings or complicated alignments.

    As it pertains to offshore, winches are the primary focus, according to Jaime Sabogal, market segment manager of Hägglunds – Oil & Gas, Recycling, and Building & Construction.

    "As the industry is trending more towards electric solutions, the Fusion offers the benefits of hydraulics packaged in an electro-mechanical format. In this case, we view the hydraulic components as a power transmission rather than a pump and motor," Sabogal told Offshore. "When comparing an electric drive to a hydraulic transmission, the differences are clear: low-speed performance and starting torque are very difficult and inefficient for electro-mechanical solutions. In winch drives, starting from stop at full load is critical."

    Fusion was launched in February 2022. While the technology is not new, it is "a repackaging of an industrial solution," Sabogal said. "Extreme care was taken to use the most condensed/efficient parts in this system," he added. 

    This drive system is designed to allow apron feeders, belt feeders, belt conveyors and infeed conveyors to get maximum torque from zero speed, plus built-in torque limitation. This will allow the user to start, stop and reverse as often as needed, without risk of damage.

    "We are working to explore the possibilities of implementing two-speed functionality so the drives will be able to operate at two times the speed with the same displacement pump," Sabogal said.

    Hägglunds Drives and Bosch Rexroth are exhibiting at booth 3219 at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) May 5-8 in Houston, Texas. 
    Bosch Rexroth technical poster sessions to be held at OTC 2025 include:
    • "Ensuring Precise Flow Control: Optimized Multiturn-Actuation For Low-Power Applications" session by M. Kubacki at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 6;
    • "Design For Reliability: Enabling Enhanced Condition Monitoring in All-Electric Subsea Systems" session by J. Duarte Da Silva at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7; and
    • "Enhancing System Availability: Findings and Potentials Discovered During the Electrification of Large Subsea Valves" session by E. Pfeifroth at 11:10 a.m. on Thursday, May 8.
    About the Author

    Ariana Hurtado | Editor-in-Chief

    With more than a decade of copy editing, project management and journalism experience, Ariana Hurtado is a seasoned managing editor born and raised in the energy capital of the world—Houston, Texas. She currently serves as editor-in-chief of Offshore magazine, overseeing the editorial team, its content and the brand's growth from a digital perspective. 

    Utilizing her editorial expertise, she manages digital media for the Offshore team. She also helps create and oversee new special industry reports and revolutionizes existing supplements, while also contributing content to Offshore magazine, its newsletters and website as a copy editor and writer. 

    Prior to her current role, she served as Offshore's editor and director of special reports from April 2022 to December 2024.

    Before joining Offshore, she served as senior managing editor of publications with Hart Energy. Prior to her nearly nine years with Hart, she worked on the copy desk as a news editor at the Houston Chronicle.

    She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Houston.

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