On September 22 and 23, 2016, the 9th Colloquium on Mobile Hydraulics took place on the grounds of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The conference is organized every two years by the Mobile Machinery Institute (Mobima) of the KIT and the Institute for Mobile Machines and Commercial Vehicles (IMN) of the TU Braunschweig together with the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) from Frankfurt. The event enjoys a special status in specialist circles, as the solutions implemented are shown on demonstrators and discussed. This means that the theoretical content of the presentations can also be demonstrated on a practical object.

The 9th Mobile Hydraulics Colloquium was attended by 130 interested parties from industry and university research. The current state of research in the field of mobile hydraulics was presented and discussed in nine high-quality papers. The main topics of the first day were new mobile hydraulic concepts as well as hydraulic fluids and components for traction and work drives.

As a special feature this year, Dutch hydraulics expert Dr. Peter Achten from Innas BV was invited to give a keynote speech entitled "A new perspective for hydraulics". In the 45 minutes or so of his speech, Dr. Achten recommended changing perspectives from time to time and redesigning the future with new, low-loss hydraulic systems. The joint efforts of all those involved from industry and university research are required.

On the evening of the first day, the evening event associated with the conference took place in the test halls of the Mobile Machinery Institute on the KIT East Campus, in keeping with tradition. In addition to a sumptuous buffet, the evening program included a demonstration of two test rigs from the Mobile Machinery Institute, which were presented during the lecture sessions. The first was a component test rig, which was used to investigate the effectiveness of a demand-adapted relief of the tribological contacts of axial piston machines as an optimization measure. The second system was a complete single-circuit load sensing system for the working hydraulics of a hydraulic excavator, which was used to investigate the increase in efficiency through the reduction of system-related pressure losses.

At the same time, guided tours of the subinstitute's testing facilities were offered. The stand of the student group KAMARO Engineering e.V., who presented the results of their work - a self-propelled robot for the future of agriculture - was a special feature of the evening for many participants.

The presentations on the second day dealt with the topic of "Energy efficiency in mobile hydraulic systems". For example, a presentation was given on an efficiency-optimized "Skidder" forestry crane from Ritter, which owes a 14% increase in efficiency compared to the original vehicle to its innovative control concept using electrohydraulic demand flow control. The optimized machine was available as a demonstrator as part of the machine exhibition and was enthusiastically put through its paces in practical use by some of the conference guests.

All contributions to the conference are available for free download in the form of a conference proceedings on the KSP-Verlag homepage. The content can be accessed via the following link:

http://www.ksp.kit.edu/9783731505730

The 10th Mobile Hydraulics Colloquium will take place in Braunschweig in late summer / fall 2018.