Technology

Our Integrated Noise &
Dust Reduction Cooling System (iNDr)
was developed for KOBELCO excavators
to coexist with a city environment

Construction machines operate in cities that are packed with residence from day to day. In short, construction machinery is certainly a part of our lives.
One of the aims of construction machines is to enrich our lives by building cities without excessive noise.
To minimize that noise, we came up with our Integrated Noise & Dust Reduction Cooling System (iNDr).

Going beyond Common Knowledge
The Challenge to "Ultimate Low Noise"*

There are many construction sites such as road construction and residential construction in our daily lives, that is, construction machinery is very close to us ourselves. In Japan, the Noise Pollution Regulation Law was enacted in 1968 and noise control regulations became globally widespread in 2000s. In 2001, KOBELCO started up a project to reduce the noise by its hydraulic excavators.
Compared to the noise produced by conventional machines, KOBELCO aimed at reducing the bodily sensation of sound down 10dB and held up "Ultimate Low Noise" as a slogan. KOBELCO's developers joined with experts from the Kobe Corporate Research Laboratories (Kobe Steel, Ltd.) and formed a team to deal with this near-impossible task.

* The Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism specifies a standard value of 98dB for ultra-low noise which is different from KOBELCO's definition for "ultimate low noise".

A New "Wind Pathway" System Featuring Low Noise, Cooling Performance and Dust Reduction

The principal causes of noise are the engine and cooling fan. Any attempt at sealing the sound in to reduce its output will result in overheating. The "wind pathway" system was a new idea that created an air path from the inlet port to the engine room and to the exhaust port, treating it all as a large duct. The flow of air prevents overheating while noise is reduced by the sound absorption material covering the interior walls of the duct. In addition, high level of dust reduction performance is made possible by putting a filter at the exhaust port as a mask. It took 6 years to create KOBELCO's unique iNDr (Integrated Noise & Dust Reduction Cooling System) by designing, testing and measuring repeatedly, in which we battled with the numerical decibel.

Our Goal: Construction Machines
that Blend with Cities

In 2007, we released the SK225SR short rear swing excavator, the first model to feature the revolutionary cooling system that combined both noise and dust reduction capabilities. The outstanding feature of the excavator was its overwhelming noise reduction performance which achieved less than 5dB of the standard value for ultra-low noise construction machinery set by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. What’s more, the unit of left-side surface was -10dB of conventional machines, achieving the value targeted at the outset of the development project. At present, the iNDr system is featured primarily with short rear swing excavators or mini excavators which are used at urban areas. The low noise output contributes to reduce our stress to the construction works and it brings the safety to the construction site by making it easy to hear the voices of the on-site workers. We will continue to pursue the possibilities of construction machinery to make these machines as closely acceptable as the cars and trains that travel throughout a city.

The KOBELCO’s iNDr technology is registered in the New Technology Information System (NETIS) by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Registration number: CG-100015-VE (Backhoe with iNDr)