Fuel-Tracker Information
Mirenco's Fuel-Tracker was developed out of a need to account for the actual
fuel usage of each vehicle in a fleet of vehicles. It was soon apparent to
Fuel-Tracker users just how useful this system could actually be. The
Fuel-Tracker system was capable of supplying much more information than a simple
amount of fuel used each day. Customers began using the Fuel-Tracker system to
monitor hourly fuel usage, average horsepower, operator performance, tracking
the location of each gallon of fuel consumed, excessive idle time, breaks in
production, differences in fuel consumption rates for different operators,
shifts and jobs, as well as numerous other advantages.
Fuel Data Flow-Chart
The Mirenco Fuel Tracker (MFT) measures the Horsepower by a correlation with the
turbo-boost pressure which is in turn related to the fuel burn. The more
gallons per hour that are burned the more energy that is released thus causing a
higher turbine speed and in turn a higher boost pressure. The advantage to
using the turbo-boost pressure is in the fact that it is universal; that is to
say, MFT fits all turbo-charged Diesel engines whether they are mechanical or
electronic injected. MFT is easy to install and is fairly easy to calibrate.
MFT doesn’t intrude into any fuel lines and it is capable of measuring within 5%
(+ or -) as long as the engine remains in a healthy state. If Mirenco would
notice a change, it would most likely signal a problem with the combustion
process of the engine. Mirenco would be monitoring this through our fuel
reports and other means to make sure that the MFT was always producing reliable
up-to-date information. The MFT allows for fuel measurements in pts., qts., and
half-gallons where these increments usually correlate with the horsepower of the
engine in question. MFT is also independent of the tracking service i.e.
Qualcomm, Trimble or other. Mirenco by using the MFT can then present the idle
time as well as the Average % HP of each machine that is worked each day.
What is important with the %HP used each day? – Remember that horsepower makes
money. The amount of HP used each day is equated to how much a machine works in
a day. In other words, one wants to reduce fuel usage that doesn’t make money
(i.e. machine idle time) and increase the fuel burned that makes money (higher
average horsepower). Also, remember that the amount of horsepower used will
indirectly affect all of the mechanical drive train. Over time, Mirenco thinks
that the user can determine future drive train failure based on the amount of
horsepower and time that is incurred on any particular engine. Mirenco measures
the amount of time the machine works and then breaks that time into productive
time and non-productive time where the non-productive time is considered engine
idle time and stoppage time. All of this information could be monitored by
Mirenco through the use of the MFT and only the information that the user wants
or needs would be furnished. As you can see, there is a lot of information that
can be gleaned from such a simple, economic device. Mirenco is
still learning and improving on how the user can make the most profitable use of
the machine based on the amount of horsepower that is used daily.
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