With sustainability becoming a popular topic, off-highway OEMs are considering alternative fuel solutions for off-highway machinery. With its growing popularity over the past few years, Innovatrix hosted a webinar and in-person conference for engineers to learn about the dynamics and challenges of developing zero-emission off-highway machinery. This year was Innovatrix’s third Design and Develop of Zero Emission Off-Highway Machinery Conference in Chicago, Illinois, on December 7th and 8th, 2023, and their pre-event teaser webinar on October 31st, 2023.

With Innovatrix being a European-based organization, they created a forum that provided valuable content to engineering professionals around the globe in both the webinar and in-person events. During these two events, industry experts from Cummins, Komatsu, John Deere, and Bosch Rexroth, to name a few, spoke at the event. They share their experiences designing off-highway machinery and industrial vehicles. The content of these conference sessions was impactful because the speakers gave real-world examples and case studies from their journey in developing zero-emission vehicles. Specialized experts held sessions on the impact of regulatory affairs on product development that create challenges for OEMs. With the electric vehicle market being a dynamic and ever-changing industry, sessions like these give engineers foresight into what they can expect during the design process.

One of the topics this year was battery thermal management and thermal challenges. With Modine’s 100-plus-year legacy in thermal management, we sponsored and exhibited at this conference. We could field questions that engineers were unfamiliar with regarding thermal management for electric off-highway machinery and industrial vehicles. During the event, we met with engineering professionals looking for a partner to help them resolve their thermal challenges. With our expertise in thermal management, we were able to complement the technical sessions on thermal management that left the listeners yearning for more information. What made these interactions impactful was explaining the dynamics of thermal management for lithium-ion batteries. Many people were interested in deepening their understanding of battery thermal management. At Modine, we are not just here to sell you our thermal systems but to be a resource to you during the thermal management design process. We enjoyed meeting everyone at the event, and we hope our conversations gave each attendee insights into what to look for when finding a thermal solution for an electric industrial vehicle or off-highway machinery.