Custom Solutions in Heavy Equipment Cooling

^{Heavy Equipment Cooling Overview}

When it comes to engine cooling for heavy-duty equipment, two things are certain: consistent high performance is paramount, and failure is not an option.  What do we mean by “heavy-duty”?  Imagine freight trucks transporting sensitive goods across desert heat for days on end, or autonomous agricultural tractors tilling dry fields for 72 hours nonstop.  Any piece of equipment or machinery that has to operate in aggressive environments for extended durations, performing high-load or high-frequency tasks, fits the bill. 

In such applications, engine breakdowns of any type could put people and property at risk, not to mention jeopardizing completion of mission-critical tasks.  In these cases, the single largest threat to engine reliability comes from improper cooling, which is why we feel that buyers should seek out heavy-duty cooling components – and the companies that provide and service them – based on a higher standard specific to these applications.   

From a design perspective, engine cooling in heavy-duty equipment is not just a matter of increasing the resilience of individual components, but also of considering how the entire cooling system will react after very long run times under intense loads.  From a service perspective, heavy-duty cooling components need more intensive and frequent preventative maintenance, backed up by manufacturer recommendations that can identify warning signs of issues well before they manifest. 

Putting these perspectives together, buyers should evaluate cooling system suppliers on how they approach, implement, and support heavy-duty applications by asking two questions:

• Does the supplier have successful experience in your particular application, and/or the operating conditions that you anticipate encountering?  

• What specific design and support features, benefits, and other offerings can the supplier provide that directly address these high performance, zero-failure requirements?           

Below we’ll share how Cincinnati Radiator answers these questions for our heavy-duty equipment customers.   

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^{Application Examples in Industrial-Grade Cooling}

Heavy equipment can be found in many different industries, market sectors, and use-cases, such as the below examples pulled directly from our past projects:  

• Agriculture - mowers, planters, rakes, harvesters, loaders, balers, wind rowers, and even fully autonomous tractors.

• Construction & Earth Moving - skid steers, cranes, haulers, loaders, aerial lifts, dozers, dump trucks, and excavators.

• Emergency Response & Power Generation - ambulances, fire trucks, disaster response vehicles, mobile command centers, electrical generators, evacuation buses, water pumps, rapid deployment vehicles, mobile crime labs, and all types of military and defense equipment.

• Forestry - all-terrain transport and scouting vehicles, loggers, harvesters, fellers, tractors, haulers, and skidders.

• Hydraulics - anywhere oil cooling is needed, such as with transmission, power steering, lubrication, powered lifting, engine oil, gearbox, recreational vehicles, and industrial manufacturing systems.

• Trucking & Material Handling - forklifts, cranes, load pullers, trailer tugs, freight trucks, rail cars, hydraulic lifting and conveying, elevators, airfreight equipment, and warehousing pallet storage systems.

• Oil & Gas Exploration - all-terrain scout and testing trucks, mobile petroleum test labs, crew sleepers, drill rigs, extraction pump trucks, tanker trucks, barges, and rail tankers.

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^{Solving Heavy Equipment Cooling Challenges}

If the list above conveys anything, it's that the importance and criticality of heavy equipment engine cooling cannot be understated.  For this reason, producing cooling components for such uses begins with understanding all of the nuanced technical challenges involved in a given application, and then directly implementing design features addressing each one.  Here at Cincinnati Radiator, we specifically offer radiators, coolers, and heat exchangers for heavy equipment, designed around the following considerations:

• Material alloy selections are made for higher hardness, tensile strength, and thermal transfer efficiency.

• Thicker materials are selected for frame, tank, port, and support construction so as to withstand more general wear and tear.

• Reservoir tank sizes are larger to allow for greater thermal fluid expansion, accommodating higher operating temperatures.

• Fluid connection ports use thicker sidewalls in order to better resist stress and vibration cracking over time.

• Additional internal ribs, cross supports, baffles, and backing plates are added to resist stress and strain.

• Brazing connections are properly cleaned, prepped, aligned, gapped, and fused using high-alloy aluminum with additional sheet cladding to achieve deeper penetration, fending off stress failures.   

• Exterior surfaces receive an application-specific treatment such as priming, power coating, painting, and/or sealing to provide better environmental protection.

• Absolute conformance to OEM installation requirements, assuring drop-in replacement and in the rare event of a major failure in the field, economical swap out in rough conditions.

• Where deemed beneficial, enhanced heat transfer designs are offered over OEM standards to provide more efficient, consistent cooling performance.

• Packing and Shipment are done with extreme care, protecting against damage incurred during transit.  ‍

Warranty Information:

• Limited Lifetime Warranty on Bar & Plate Style Charge Air Cooler
• Limited  24-Month Warranty on Bolt-Together Style Radiators
• Limited  24-Month Warranty on Plastic & Aluminum Radiators (Aftermarket) and Charge Air Coolers (Excluding Bar & Plate Style which carry a Limited Lifetime Warranty)
• There are also additional options for future preventative maintenance services (performed by bringing your equipment to our shop), remanufacturing, and core exchanges for new units.

Mission-critical vehicles and equipment in over a dozen infrastructure sectors rely on heat transfer components manufactured by Cincinnati Radiator. CR works directly with Original Equipment Manufacturers and Aftermarket service channels to supply premium-grade, long life radiators, coolers, and full cooling packages into extreme applications all over the world.  With our expanding inventory and fabrication space at our Fairfield, Ohio facility, we pride ourselves on having a personal touch, ultra-fast lead times, and one-off custom design capabilities.  

For your next vehicle or heavy equipment heat transfer project, call us at (513) 874-5555, email us at sarslan@cincyradiator.com, or visit our website at https://cincyradiator.com/