Situation

CADRO is one of China’s leading truck liftgate manufacturers, holding approximately 40% of the domestic market with a relatively lean engineering team. This created a fast-paced development environment in which engineers were expected to move quickly from initial requirements to detailed design, prototyping, validation, and production documentation.

The company needed a next-generation hydraulic power and control unit for electric trucks. The existing system was bulky and divided between two separate housings: one for the hydraulic power unit and another for the control electronics. Its internal arrangement made individual components difficult to access, so even basic maintenance could require approximately 40 minutes of disassembly.

The transition toward electric trucks also introduced new packaging and regulatory constraints. The redesigned system needed to occupy less space, reduce manufacturing costs, withstand vibration and environmental exposure, and remain easy to service in the field.

Task

My responsibility was to design a compact, cost-efficient, and serviceable power and control unit that could:

Meet the packaging and regulatory requirements of electric trucks.
Allow the motor, hydraulic pump, reservoir, and electronics to be serviced independently.
Reduce the number and size of external housings.
Withstand vibration, weather exposure, and repeated field use.
Support configurations for both compact electric trucks and larger commercial vehicles.
Move rapidly from concept development into physical prototyping and production documentation.

Action

I began with field research and conversations with truck drivers to understand how liftgate systems were used and maintained in real operating conditions. This helped me identify service access, component removal, environmental protection, and maintenance time as key design priorities.

I then redesigned the system architecture around an outward-facing service plane. The motor, hydraulic pump, and fluid reservoir were arranged so that each major component could be accessed and removed from the exterior side of the truck. This modular layout eliminated the need to disassemble the entire unit when servicing a single component.

Instead of retaining two separate housings, I integrated the control electronics into the available space between the hydraulic components. This reduced the overall footprint, eliminated redundant enclosure material, simplified the system layout, and helped lower manufacturing and assembly costs.

I developed two related configurations based on vehicle scale. The compact version was optimized for smaller electric trucks with limited installation space, while the larger version accommodated the capacity and packaging requirements of heavier commercial vehicles. Both designs followed the same modular service strategy.

To validate the supporting structures, I performed finite element analysis to evaluate deformation and stress under expected loading conditions. I used the simulation results to refine bracket geometry, material placement, and structural support before committing to physical prototypes.

I also introduced 3D printing into the development process. Printed prototypes allowed the engineering team to quickly evaluate component clearances, assembly sequences, enclosure geometry, maintenance access, and overall packaging. Design issues could be identified physically and corrected in CAD before investing in production tooling.

Throughout development, I considered sealing, vibration, environmental exposure, wire routing, and component retention. These requirements influenced the enclosure interfaces, mounting features, fastener locations, and internal organization. I then translated the validated design into technical drawings and contributed to the patent documentation for the new architecture.

Result

The redesigned power and control unit reduced routine disassembly and maintenance time from approximately 40 minutes to 5 minutes—an 87.5% improvement.

Integrating the electronics into the hydraulic unit and simplifying the enclosure architecture reduced estimated manufacturing costs by 30%. The modular arrangement also allowed technicians to remove individual components without dismantling the complete system.

Two configurations were developed: a compact unit for smaller electric trucks and a larger unit for heavier commercial vehicles. The design work resulted in two granted utility patents.

Introducing 3D-printed prototypes also accelerated the team’s development process by enabling faster physical evaluation and more confident design decisions before production.

What I Learned

This project strengthened my ability to work across the complete product-development process, including field research, system architecture, mechanical packaging, FEA validation, rapid prototyping, technical drawings, and patent writing.

Most importantly, I became more comfortable working within a fast-paced engineering environment. I learned to respond quickly to new information, test ideas early, and balance serviceability, cost, structural performance, environmental protection, and manufacturing requirements within a single integrated design.

Modular Liftgate Power & Control Unit