Sauer-Danfoss - Managing tomorrow's big challenges with today's limited resources

Executive Viewpoints-Vehicle Development Insights from Industry: Driving Factors for Future Innovation.

While dealing with the unpleasant results of the last year, engineering teams also undoubtedly looked toward the future-most specifically, at new regulations that are in place or on the near horizon. New EU functional safety standards, the advent of Tier 4 in the U.S. and Stage IV in Europe, and the continuing end-user demands of a better operator experience are all compelling events that must be addressed. On top of (or perhaps in spite of) these new regulations, customers demand these machines more quickly than ever, and OEM senior management teams require machines that differentiate themselves in the market.

Even through these tough times, Sauer-Danfoss has been working as part of our customers' development teams to take on these big challenges. Despite the downturn, our test lab and research work has continued. We've taken a vehicle-by-vehicle approach to expand our applications and vehicle systems knowledge, tackling these new regulations while maintaining efficiency and total vehicle performance. Our goal is to deliver system solutions and flexible products that greatly reduce the engineering effort required by our customers to meet these challenges. We are doing this by designing products that simplify system integration, validating standard system design solutions in our test labs, and developing standardized control software solutions that allow engineers to improve both systems performance and operator experience.