What are the advantages of a hydraulic retarder in addition to safety?

The hydraulic retarder, is a vehicle retarder that reduces the speed of the vehicle by means of a hydraulic device. Developed by the German Voith Group in 1961, it was first used to solve the problem of excessive downhill speeds on trains and after many years of development and technical updating, it began to be used on commercial vehicle models in the 1970s.

The main structure of the hydraulic retarder is a working chamber consisting of a stator and a rotor. When the braking is required, compressed air will press the oil into the working chamber, the rotor will accelerate the oil and rotate it, hitting the stator, the speed and direction of the oil will change and then act back on the rotor, generating a reverse force in the process, making the rotor decelerate and then transmitting the braking force to the whole vehicle through the gears, thus slowing down the vehicle.

In the process of braking with the hydraulic retarder, the kinetic energy of the vehicle is converted into heat energy, which is dissipated through the heat exchanger of the hydraulic retarder and the vehicle cooling system to achieve continuous braking. In addition, when the hydraulic retarder is not in operation, the oil in the working chamber is drained to avoid depleting the engine power.

According to the different media, also divided into oil medium liquid slowing and water medium liquid slowing, the current application rate of oil medium liquid slowing is the highest, the technology is also the most mature. At the same time, there are three types of installation, namely series, parallel and independent installation, and the most common installation in the commercial vehicle market is parallel.

The mounting position is to the left of the power take-off of the gearbox, which also makes it easier to retrofit a power take-off on some specialised gearboxes. The individual fluid retarder weighs around 40-50 kg and has no impact on vehicle power, weight or fuel consumption.

In the current domestic market, there are a number of suppliers of fluid retardation, but the most well-known ones are mainly Voith, ZF and Fast, of which Voith is the original parts supplier for Jiefang, Heavy Duty Truck and Dongfeng, while ZF is mainly used with its own ZF gearboxes and is not matched with other brand gearboxes alone.

According to the head of the marketing department of Voith Turbo, not only does it provide greater safety on the road, but it also significantly reduces vehicle costs. Vehicles equipped with Voith Turbo can save nearly 30,000 yuan per year compared to the former.

This may be exaggerated, but what is clear is that the cost of frequent brake pad replacements, etc., has indeed come down and that the vehicle is safer to drive. This is extremely suitable for truckers who spend a lot of time driving on long downhill roads, or on mountainous roads.

On long downhill stretches, the vehicle can be controlled to maintain speed by using the constant speed gear, so that there is no need to apply the original brakes in case of emergency, and there is no need to worry about the brakes overheating, making driving safe and worry-free.