White Paper

Key Messages

• Electro-hydrostatic
actuation (EHA)
is an energy-saving
Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation: An Attractive option for industrial
machine builders
Energy-Efficient Option for Machine Builders • Determining whether
an EHA solution is
viable requires both
Achim Helbig, Ph.D. an economic and
performance assessment
Moog
Innovation Projects Manager • Forward-thinking
machine builders seek
a “building block”
approach to incorporating
EHA into new designs

Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation (EHA)

Figure 1: General layout of an electro-hydrostatic actuator (EHA) and actual image of a Moog EHA.

Executive Summary

Electro-hydrostatic actuators (EHA), widely used in the mechanical actuation in pursuit of energy efficiency and
aerospace applications for linear actuation, are emerging environmental cleanliness, will find an EHA an attractive
as a viable option for industrial machine builders as the option for high force density actuators.
design combines the best of both electro-mechanical
and electro-hydraulic technologies. The EHA is a highly This white paper will address the factors to consider when
integrated, compact alternative to traditional hydraulic assessing an industrial machine’s application suitability for
solutions. Automation engineers moving toward electro- this latest innovation in actuation.
1 EHA Applications and Challenges required to develop these self-contained solutions. After over
a decade of EHA experience in aerospace, Moog launched
Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator Technology their first EHA on the market specifically for industrial
machinery applications in 2011. EHA technology in the
An electro-hydrostatic actuator (EHA) is a self-contained
aerospace market is a best practice by this point in time, but
hydraulic solution that integrates a cylinder, feedback unit,
until recently the cost remained relatively prohibitive to the
variable speed pump, servo motor, electric drive and control
industrial machinery sector.
electronics, into a compact unit requiring only an electrical
connection. The integration of traditionally separate
components for hydraulic actuation solutions along with the
elimination of hoses and couplings are the readily apparent
differences from a traditional hydraulic solution. The pump,
servo motor, and servo drive are Moog building block products
available in different variations and sizes which are combined
with manifolds and cylinder to create an integrated EHA
that can be customized in terms of speed, force, space
requirements and functionality.

The EHA converts power from electric to hydraulic to

mechanical. An electric servo motor drives a bidirectional,
variable speed pump which is connected to the two chambers
of a hydraulic cylinder. Depending on the flow, the axis is
extending or retracting. In contrast to the hydraulic system,
the power control is done by the pump. Varying the speed of
the pump means varying the flow and thus the hydraulic power.
The pressures in the chambers are load-dependent. This
enables the electro-hydrostatic actuator to use energy most
efficiently and deliver power on demand.

Due to the energy efficiency of the system, the hydraulic

oil only absorbs little heat. Heating is typically in the range
of only 40°C. Convection cooling is usually sufficient for
an electro-hydrostatic actuator. This allows designers to
build compact, modular units with a self-contained hydraulic
system. The oil of such an actuator ages very little and does
not usually need to be changed during the entire lifetime of
Figure 2: Deep Drawing Press using electro-hydrostatic
the system. Due to the compressibility of the hydraulic fluid,
actuation for the die cushion axis. Source: Dresden University
it shows less stiffness than an electro-mechanical system.
However, the design is highly flexible, various layouts are
possible and it can be adjusted to carry out fail-safe options
Challenges Faced in Designing an EHA for
or serial movements of several axes.
Industrial Machinery
Proven Technology in the Aerospace Industry Leveraging a combination of engineering talent in hydraulics,
electric servo drives and brushless servo motor design
Industrial machines that are employing EHAs today are
Moog formulated an EHA that is suitable for the industrial
benefiting immediately and the worry about working with
automation market requirements relative to pricing,
beta product releases or first generation products is no longer
environmental certification, and connectivity. The continual
a concern (See Figure 2). The aerospace industry has been
price decline in power electronics and servo motors has played
employing EHAs for low power aircraft applications since
a role in enabling the Moog engineering group to develop an
the beginning of the new millennium. Aerospace designers
EHA that is ideal for many industrial applications. EHAs are
gravitated to the use of EHAs from classic hydraulic solutions
now at a price point where they are a competitive alternative
to improve reliability and eliminate the plumbing required
to traditional hydraulic solutions. Factoring in the elimination
for positioning of the wing flaps, landing gear, and rudder
of hydraulic plumbing, auxiliary pumps, servo valves, and
control. The aerospace industry’s use of the EHA technology
the ongoing maintenance of filters and valves the EHA has a
is a testament to its reliability.
tremendous amount of appeal. The self-contained systems
approach translates into much higher reliability as failure
Moog was one of the first developers of EHAs for the and maintenance associated with individual components of
aerospace industry. The fact that today there are at most a traditional electro-hydraulic solutions are mitigated, if not
three to four companies in the world that can offer all the eliminated altogether.
components needed is indicative of the technical expertise

2 Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation: A New Energy-Efficient Option for Machine Builders | Helbig

Reliability is not a given in all EHA systems as the integration 2 The Benefits of EHA
challenges cross multiple engineering boundaries. Moog
has accrued intellectual property, and extensive use of Transition to EHA
modeling tools that enable Moog to custom engineer
Machine builders seeking to transition to all electric machine
power amplifier electronics and servo motor designs
actuation solutions should evaluate EHA for a number of
that meet unique environmental and form factor design
compelling reasons. For those motion control axes that
goals specifically unique to an EHA. The packaging of a
require higher forces that are unattainable without resorting
self-contained system depends upon custom engineered
to large gearbox reductions with electro-mechanical solutions
components that cannot be sourced off the shelf. Thus,
the EHA offers significant benefits. Furthermore, machine
the engineering design along with a rigorous testing and
builders seeking designs that combine electro-mechanical
validation process that is prevalent in Moog have been key
(EM) actuation with hydraulic actuators will benefit from the
factors in the availability of EHAs for the industrial market
all-electric interfaces (See Figure 3).
(See Figure 3).

Comparison of 3 Actuation Technologies

Figure 3: General layout and benefits of actuation technologies.

3 Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation: A New Energy-Efficient Option for Machine Builders | Helbig

Combining electro-mechanical and hydraulic actuation in EH systems using external pumps. Overall, the benefits of an
industrial machines is now a viable option. A total cost of EHA are numerous spanning from initial design cost to annual
ownership analysis is often used to quantify both the initial maintenance costs.
savings and the ongoing benefits of an EHA in comparison to
traditional hydraulics. The self-contained aspect of an EHA 3 EHA Application Suitability
requires absolutely no hydraulic infrastructure to incorporate
into a machine and allows machine designers to evaluate
Economic and Performance Assessment
the merits of combining electric and hydraulic actuation
technology without consideration of the fixed cost of the To evaluate whether an EHA is suitable for a machine control
hydraulic system infrastructure. application requires both an economic and performance
assessment. As mentioned earlier, from a black box
EHA Provides Benefits of an Electro-Mechanical Solution perspective an EHA functions equivalently to an EM solution.
Thus, from the automation controller (PLC in most cases)
The trend in the industrial machinery market is a shift toward perspective the interfaces are all identical where motion
machine electrification for energy saving, lower cost of profiles are all planned through digital interfaces. With that
maintenance, and dynamic performance improvements. in mind, there are two scenarios that characterize the ideal
Electro-mechanical (EM) solutions cannot compete with the application for an EHA.
high forces available in hydraulic systems. To achieve the same
forces it becomes impractical to use a servo motor combined
with the addition of gearboxes and rotary to linear conversion. 1. Electro-mechanical machine conversions that need the
EHA, however, has a wider range of force available in a force capability or power density of hydraulics for a small
relatively compact form factor while also eliminating the number of axes.
need for mechanical gearing. The elimination of mechanical
gearing is an important factor when considering the relative 2. All hydraulic machines that have only one or two axes
advantages of EHA over electro-mechanical solutions. of motion.
The lack of ball screws or gearing is compelling to machine
builders seeking to improve the simplicity in a machine design. Machines that require a relatively small number of hydraulic
axes are generally excellent candidates for EHA. This is simply
an economic justification and doesn’t factor in any of the
To an automation engineer, an EHA looks, acts, and performs dynamic performance issues which need to be evaluated.
like a servo motor based EM solution. There are many skills
that are transferrable from EM solutions to EHA solutions Economic Analysis
from an integration perspective. An EHA is a closed loop servo From an economic perspective, there are several approaches
system that requires the same mechatronic skills to size an which machine builders can use (See Figure 3 on previous
actuator and tune the dynamic performance. The same tools page). In applications with only two axes the obvious
used to determine loop gains and nonlinear compensation for approach is to assess the differential cost of the hydraulic
electro-mechanical solutions are employed when integrating infrastructure which includes pumps, hoses, couplings and
the EHA into a system. Furthermore, the control interfaces servo valves with the cost of an EHA. The higher price point
for EM and EHA are the same, particularly if the servo drives of an EHA can be offset by the elimination of hydraulic
and EHA are sourced from Moog. The underlying digital servo infrastructure. However, if the inclusion of EHA proves to
drive technology used in the EHA is derived directly from the be more expensive an energy savings analysis is required
technology that is used in Moog’s electric drives. Thus, digital to determine how long it takes for the solution to be price
interfaces such as EtherCat or alternatively a traditional neutral. This is a break-even analysis where the duty cycle
analog command interface are available (See Figures 4 and 5). and utilization of the machine need to be estimated to
determine the overall energy savings. In most cases where
Maintenance Benefits/Plumbing and Hydraulic an energy savings analysis is applied the break-even point is
Infrastructure Eliminated about two years.
EHA solutions offer machine builders many of the benefits of
What are the Technical Parameters of the Application
EM solutions and are virtually equivalent from an integration
that Determine Suitability
perspective. However, when compared to traditional electro-
hydraulic (EH) solutions EHA lowers the design costs of EH A total cost of ownership analysis for an application certainly
solutions by eliminating the design associated with routing provides economic justification for the use of EHA. EHA
hoses and couplings, allocating space for pumps and ensuring solutions, however, do not span the entire power range of
access to routine maintenance items such as filters, sensors traditional EH solutions and also have limitations in dynamic
and valves. Operational issues faced with the degradation and performance that need to be evaluated. The upper range in
aging of oil in EH solutions are mitigated in the EHA. Filter flow and pressure, for Moog’s line of self-contained EHA
changes in EHAs are generally two years or longer. The EHA actuation systems is 450 l/min and 350 bar which is a clear
filtering system is integrated while the oil is never exposed demarcation point when evaluating a solution. However,
to the external environment which prevents many of the the natural frequency response will vary depending upon
sources of oil contamination from bleeding or servo valve the specific product line as the frequency response of an
replacement, overheating and veneering associated with EHA is limited by the inertia of the internal variable speed

4 Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation: A New Energy-Efficient Option for Machine Builders | Helbig

 Technical Limitations of EM versus EHA

Figure 4: Limitation factor of EM and EHA technologies.

Force to Diameter Ratio

120 ForceForce
to Diameter Ratio
Force to Diameter Ratio
to Diameter Ratio Hydraulic Cylinder (EHA)
120 Hydraulic Cylinder (EHA)
110
120 Ball ScrewCylinder
Hydraulic (EM) (EHA)
100 Ball Screw (EM)

100
110 Ball Screw (EM)
80
Force (kN)

90
100 60
EHA provides 5 times
80
90 40 the force with the same
EHA provides 5 times
outside diameter
70
80 20
the
EHAforce with 5the
provides same
times
0
60
70 outside diameter
40 80 120 the force with the same
Outside diameter (mm)
50
60 outside diameter

40 Figure 5: Force availability versus form factor.

50

30
40

20
30 5 Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation: A New Energy-Efficient Option for Machine Builders | Helbig

10
20
 pump motor. High accelerations can develop cavitation The conventional system was a hydraulic press machine
in the suction portion of the pump. Depending upon the and the architecture for the die cushion actuation was four
characteristics of the pump and motor, the natural frequency separate cylinders, each controlled via servo valves. All of
of an EHA will be in the range of 30 to 50 Hz. For many these four axes were supplied by a variable displacement
industrial applications this is sufficient. pump. Next an EHA System was installed for each cylinder
in the die cushion including a servo electric motor connected
An example of a viable application is an injection molding with a radial piston pump. All of the four axes were connected
machine. The clamp cylinder plus mold is typically designed to with an accumulator to support the low pressure level. During
have a frequency response in the range of 5 to 10 Hz on the the deep drawing process the servo motor/pump unit was
position loop. A servo motor/pump unit with at least 3 times acting in generator mode. Via the servo drive, it was possible
higher frequency response (15 to 30 Hz) would be required to feed back the recovered energy from the die cushion to the
in this application which can be easily accommodated by ram actuator.
available EHA solutions (See Figure 3).
According to Professor Weber at Dresden University, energy
4 Research Project to Improve the Energy savings during a complete machine cycle of approximately
30% could be achieved during tests while maintaining
Efficiency of Deep Drawing Presses comparable dynamics and pressure control functionality.
A 30% energy efficiency experienced by the EHA solution
Moog worked with Dresden University to incorporate the EHA is a dramatic improvement especially when you consider the
on a Die Cushion Press so it could be objectively compared large amount of energy used by these kinds of machines in a
to a traditional servo control system using servo valves single year. A future advantage is the substantial reduction
(See Figure 6). Die cushion presses normally have a capacity or even substitution of oil cooling due to elimination of
of 24 to 4,000 tons and perform a wide range of stamping throttle losses. This test suggests EHA technology is a
operations in automotive plants including handling new viable alternative motion control system from a performance
materials and complex shapes such as external and internal standpoint with the advantage of impressive energy
body panels for doors, fenders, roofs and hoods. The challenge efficiency (See Figure 7).
in the test performed by the professors and students at
Dresden University in conjunction with Moog was to ensure
the EHA could deliver the dynamics needed, but also provide
higher energy efficiency than can be achieved with traditional Energy Consumption Comparison
servo-hydraulic systems.
Energy Consumption Comparison
300 Machine

Process
Electric Energy Eel (kWs)

Dresden University Test Machine

Energy Consumption Comparison
200
-29%

300 100
Machine
29% reducti
Process Actuators machine ene
Electric Energy Eel (kWs)

0 consumption
200
-29% EH EHA

Energy Consumption Comparison

100
300 Machine 29% reduction of the

Process Actuators machine energy

Electric Energy Eel (kWs)

0 consumption with EHA

200
-29%
EH EHA
Figure 7: Energy efficiency of the test machine equipped
with EHA.
100
29% reduction of the

machine energy

0 consumption with EHA

Figure 6: Deep drawing

EH press layout using
EHAEHA for
die cushion.

6 Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation: A New Energy-Efficient Option for Machine Builders | Helbig

Another benefit of EHA technology is that it allows a machine 5 Conclusion
builder to individualize the functionality of a machine, a
process, or a movement, which is a step forward for both the To make the EHA system accessible to more applications,
hydraulic or electro-mechanical architectures. Conventional Moog is adopting a modular approach combining standard
systems have a large hydraulic power supply and servo valves building blocks such as servo drives and a servo motor/pump
controlling axis movements or functions which inherently combination in typical sizes with a manifold and cylinder
have a lot of energy losses. With the EHA these losses are that will be customized to the exact needs of the application.
eliminated by individualized axis architecture where you have This will improve the time to market for machine builders to
an electric interface providing (via the electric servomotor incorporate this technology in new generation machines
pump combination) only the power you need hydraulically for (See Figure 8).
specific functions and movements.

Professor Weber indicated that it is important for more Using EHA technology leads to a substantial energy savings
industries to consider EHA as a viable, energy-efficient via power on demand while the dynamic performance is equal
alternative to traditional hydraulic and electric solutions. to conventional EH or EM systems. Such a self-contained axis
In the future we may want to also investigate if we can leads to a decentralized machine axis design which allows an
improve the specification of the hydrostatic unit especially optimized axis performance. Moreover, it is environmentally
areas such as the volumetric losses for the pulsation of flow friendly and easy to install. The interfaces are identical to
and pressure. Taking into account the pump characteristics today’s EM solutions, the functionality is much more flexible
during servo motor design may lead to increased and the achievable forces are far greater. To that end, the
performance. The thermal stability and the reliability are EHA will be functionally the same as the electro-mechanical
future points to investigate. systems that automation engineers have become familiar
with over the years and the performance will be superior in
many respects. This will be an enabler for machine builders
to choose the right technology for the applications without
incurring integration hurdles.

Flexible Integration Options with Building Blocks

Standard Building Blocks

Figure 8: Moog offers a wide range of standard building block products that can be combined with other customized products to
deliver electro-hydrostatic actuation solutions that fit the customer’s needs.

7 Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation: A New Energy-Efficient Option for Machine Builders | Helbig

6 Information 7 Resources

Moog brings years of expertise to maximize machine Boes, C.; Helbig, A.: Electro Hydrostatic Actuators for
productivity and ensure higher performance in motion control Industrial Applications. 9th International Fluid Power
applications. Our global team of engineers is always available Conference, Aachen, 2014
to collaborate with you on designing a motion control solution
that will meet your requirements. Klug, D.; Czeppel, T.; Händle, W.; Neumann, S.; Weber, J.;
Lohse, H.: Verbesserung der Energieeffizienz hydraulischer
Subscribe to our newsletter and upcoming white papers at Tiefziehpressen (ENEHYT). Schlussbericht, Waghäusel,
http://www.moog.com/news/newsletters to learn more about Böblingen, Dresden, 2014
Moog’s motion control solutions. For personal consultative
expertise, contact a Moog representative in your region. Lohse, H.: Modellierung hydraulischer Tiefziehpressen
für Prozesskopplung, Reglerauslegung und energetische
OR CONTACT: Bilanzierung. Dissertation, TU Dresden, 2014
Dr.-Ing. Achim Helbig
Innovation Projects Manager Author Biography
Phone: +49 7031 622307
ahelbig@moog.com
Achim Helbig has been with Moog since 2004 in the
position of Senior Applications Engineer, Team Manager
For your nearest Moog location, visit Hydraulic Systems and Innovation Projects Manager. Prior
www.moog.com/industrial/globallocator to joining Moog, he worked at Dresden University and
completed his Ph.D.

www.moog.com/industrial

©2014 Moog, Inc.

Moog is a registered trademark of Moog Inc. All trademarks as indicated herein are the
property of Moog Inc. and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved.

EHA White Paper

Mobium/PDF/Rev.-, December 2014, ID CDL44033-en