“You wouldn’t expect advanced solutions like ours to come from a little place like Mellansel,” says Wolfram Ulrich as the factory celebrates its 50th anniversary. Ulrich, Vice Presi-dent for Sales & Service of Hägglunds products, started working with Hägglunds solutions six years ago and finds that Mellansel and the products continue to impress. “It’s perhaps not so much the products alone, but also the com-mitment that surrounds them,” he says. “The drive to find that perfect solution for our customers that was founded here so many years ago seems to linger on, and we have a lot of experienced people working within the company.”

Urban Strömberg Director Product Management & Sales Support, has worked here for 20 years and continues to be inspired by the dedication to Hägglunds products, as well as by the constant push to help customers achieve more.Today the factory and Hägglunds drive solutions are part of Bosch Rexroth, but Strömberg says there is no difference in the things that matter. “Some customers don’t realize we’re part of something larger, because our focus on them and

In northern Sweden, halfway between Stockholm and the Arctic Circle, lies one of the world’s most extensive hydraulic laboratories. Situated in the small town of Mellansel, the 1500 m2 facility is part of the world-class factory that produces Hägglunds drives – hydraulic drive systems that answer challenges no other drives can.

Mellansel, Sweden, is home of Hägglunds products. “We continuously improve our products, solutions and designs, all of which are tested extensively in our own unique hydraulic laboratory in Sweden.”

The Hägglunds product family has grown over the years and all products undergo continuous development.

Mellansel, Sweden and Hägglunds drives:

50 years of driving innovation

their challenges – like our belief in our products – is as strong as ever. On the other hand, they appreciate the benefits that a bigger, more global organization and an increased offer bring,” he says.

Rooted in customer needsIn fact, the Hägglunds spirit can be traced back a long way. “We stem from a company that began as a family business in 1899,” says Strömberg. “The historical Hägglunds was involved in many things, beginning with carpentry and moving into buses, planes, military equipment and cranes, where motors were a common thread. Wherever a need was perceived, a Hägglunds solution was developed to meet it.”It was this eye for seeing needs, coupled with an increas-ingly broad and deep technical competence, that led to the very first Hägglunds hydraulic motor. Recognizing the potential for a low-speed, high-torque motor on marine deck cranes, Gösta Hägglund initiated the development of a new motor with a radial piston design. Presented as a

prototype in 1959, this hydraulic design would soon become the Hägglunds Viking.

The Viking revolutionThe Hägglunds Viking motor, still sold as the Hägglunds VI, was a revolution that set the tone for much to come. The motor’s combination of low speed and high torque is ideal for many appli-cations and was a perfect match for winch applications. Not surprisingly the Hägglunds Viking was rapidly accepted by the marine industry.While the motor was primarily sold as part of complete Hägglunds cranes, it soon began serving other applications and new industries, such as the pulp industry. “This is something we see time and time again,” says Strömberg. “Häg-glunds motors are developed to meet specific market requirements and with a specific customer challenge in mind. But once they reach the market, they begin solving a wider range of chal-lenges in more areas than anyone could foresee.”Having grown tremendously popular, the Hägglunds Viking became its own product line in 1966. That same year, the factory in Mellansel was established to produce and further develop hydrau-lic drives.

The Marathon’s startFor well over a decade, the Hägglunds Viking was the only product delivered from Mellansel. Yet it was clear that this simple idea – a hydraulic motor, driven at an infinite range of speeds by a variable flow of oil – could be further adapted for all sorts of customer chal-lenges.The Hägglunds Viking was ideal for the requirements of winches, which oper-ate intermittently. But there was a different range of challenges in indus-try, where drives operate continuously, year round. The company saw a big

market demand there, with customers calling for larger motors that could deliver even higher torque at lower speed.That call was answered in 1983 with the Hägglunds Marathon motor. The product of three years of intense research and development, the Hägglunds Marathon had a new design that allowed it to be mounted directly on the rotating shaft. With no gearbox or foundations, the resulting drive weighed two-thirds less than competing solutions and required just a fourth of the space. Over the coming years, motors in the Hägglunds Marathon series were pro-

duced in ever-increasing sizes. Espe-cially in process industries such as pulp and paper, mining, sugar, rubber and chemicals, this strategy was an indis-putable success.

The drive behind the drivesMotor displacements, however, were not the only drive aspect in focus. By 1985, Hägglunds was also producing its own drive units. These units comprise the electric motor, hydraulic pumps and other vital components that create a complete drive package, including the control system. The intent was to pro-vide the customer with a fully optimized drive solution.“Especially today, our drive units are more than a simple power supply for the hydraulic motor,” says Strömberg. “Intelligent control has become a very important part of them. When we started producing them in-house, we gained the ability to fully optimize the drive system package, ensuring that it meets customer requirements down to the last detail.” Concentrating the advantagesAfter a decade of thinking big with the Hägglunds Marathon, the time eventu-ally came to start thinking smaller – again in response to customer needs.

One of the first Hägglunds MB (Marathon) motors together with a Hägglunds drive unit powering a bucket wheel drive. Hägglunds drive systems have been very successful in heavy duty applications, offering features such as high torque-to-weight ratio, shock load resistance and the possibility to conveniently place the drive unit away from the boom.

The first prototype.

There was a desire for compact hydraulic solutions offering higher speed. Especially in plastics and recycling, customers required a smaller motor with high efficiency and the same extreme robustness. In 1994 this resulted in the Hägglunds CA motor, in which the internal piston and roller configuration had been thoroughly revised. The new construc-tion, which established a compact platform later Hägglunds motors would build on, enabled tremendous savings in space and weight. The Hägglunds CA quickly became a best-seller, with more than 50,000 units produced in Mellansel to date.

Taking full controlFurther adding to the Hägglunds CA’s success was the valve program devel-oped for it. “With motor-specific valves, for example to provide over-load protection or freewheeling capac-ity, it’s possible to create a uniquely effective and compact drive for a given purpose,” says Strömberg. “That’s why we began developing our valve program, to offer customers a greater range of functions and a more complete solution. The hydraulic motor is only one part.”

In 1996, the company moved further in this direction with Hägglunds Spider, its own control and monitor-ing system. An integral part of today’s drive units, Hägglunds Spider pro-vides standalone control or acts as one part of an overall factory system. “The pump and motor are the heart and muscle, but the control system is the brain that steers them. When you have all three, you have the whole body and a complete turnkey solu-tion,” Strömberg says.

Gaining strength and speedBy 2002, yet another compact motor was ready to roll out of Mellansel. A development of the internal design established by the Hägglunds CA, the Hägglunds CB motor offered an even higher ratio of torque to weight. Ideal for tough environments, it would eventually take over for the smaller Hägglunds Marathon motors that had been used on many shredders, feeders, roll mills and conveyors.Another major development would soon follow, this time answering customers’ demand for speed. In 2005, the Hägglunds CBp motor was launched at the Hannover Messe exhibition. “The Hägglunds CBp is

a powerhouse, with an extra connec-tion that enables more flow into the motor,” explains Strömberg. “More flow means higher speeds with retained efficiency, which is important for applications such as mixers, chem-ical reactors and drilling equipment that need both higher speed and torque.”

Running beyond the MarathonHaving innovated so much in just over a decade, the development team in Mellansel now began looking to retire the largest Hägglunds Marathon motors. With the design improve-ments made they saw that they could create a motor with the ability to transfer even more torque to the shaft, and with a longer lifetime.The first giant to retire was the Hägglunds MB1150. This was replaced in 2009 by the Hägglunds CB1120, an extension of the Hägglunds CB series. The others would endure just a few years more, until the Hägglunds CBm was unveiled in 2012.The Hägglunds CBm offers 6000 Nm/bar of specific torque, which is 2000

In 1985 the first Hägglunds drive units were produced, and with time proprietary control systems were also developed. Today a complete Hägglunds drive system from Bosch Rexroth comprises the Hägglunds motor, drive unit and control system

The Hägglunds CA introduced the compact series. The concept has grown over the years, and even the Hägglunds CA motors themselves have been greatly improved. Today they offer more torque and longer service life than they did initially.

more than the Hägglunds Marathon. It packs 50% more torque into a motor that is smaller and up to 50% lighter. So as well loved as the Hägglunds Marathon was, there are many who have chosen to upgrade. Above all, the Hägglunds CBm has created opportu-nities in larger and more demanding applications.

The Beast is unleashedOf course, the team in Mellansel is not one to rest on its laurels. Even as the Hägglunds CBm was being introduced, the engineers were hard at work on another motor for the complex needs of the plastics industry. Revealed as ‘The Beast’ in 2014, the Hägglunds CAb boasts an unbeatable power-to-weight ratio. Its extreme power density gives it a significant edge over competitor solutions, pro-viding 10-15% more torque for the amount of energy put in. The motor was called ‘The Beast’ for good reason but its power is matched by flexibility. The Hägglunds CAb deliv-ers full torque and full speed simulta-neously, and it uses less energy in the high speed range. Like all other com-pact Hägglunds motors, it also has an extremely modular construction. Just a few components create big possibili-ties for numerous motor combinations with very few torque steps.

The best made even betterAmidst all this product innovation, there is also another development that cannot be overlooked. In 2008, Hägglunds become part of Bosch Rexroth. Wolfram Ulrich comments “Mellansel is still the home of Hägglunds products, with all the quality, knowledge and innovation they stand for. But the company spirit and technology were a perfect fit with Bosch Rexroth’s culture and offering in drive and control.”The most important thing, he says, is the continued focus on customer needs. “The right system solutions come from seeing our customers’ needs and knowing their applications as well as they do themselves,” he says. “As Bosch Rexroth, we have an even larger organization to support our customers worldwide.”

With the customer at heartAt the Mellansel factory itself, the work of supporting customers is never finished. “We’re constantly developing new products, but also our existing drive solutions,” says Urban Ström-berg. “That means we regularly release improvements that can benefit custom-ers, even when the customer’s produc-tion is already going strong.”Strömberg notes that more than ever

is happening today, but always with the customer in focus. “Our customer-cen-tered mindset keeps us at the forefront of innovation, even when it comes to things like Industry 4.0,” he says. “Smart solutions are the ones that use all these technologies, from smart-phones to virtual reality, to bring the customer added value, as we’re doing with Hägglunds Inside Intelligence.”In the end the goal is the same, he says, regardless whether the solution is a motor, a drive solution or an app: “Customers with Hägglunds solutions should sleep well at night. And all of us are working to see that they do.”

The biggest and the smallest Hägglunds motors today.‘The Beast’ – Hägglunds CAb – a perfect solution for the plastic industry.

▼ Bosch Rexroth, Mellansel ▼ Home of Hägglunds products

and drive systems ▼ ▼ Main production plant

R&D and head office for sales and service of Hägglunds products ▼

▼ Some 400 employees ▼ Situated 650 km north of Stockholm ▼ ▼ ▼ President, Hägglunds products:

Karl Lindblom ▼ ▼ Technical and Commercial Plant ▼ Manager: Jürgen Lieser