Eaton Corporation plc announced at this year's IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hanover the launch of its UltraShift PLUS transmission family, aiming at improving the operating efficiency of trucks by reducing vehicle downtime and delays to global supply chains, especially in challenging conditions. Under the umbrella of UltraShift PLUS transmissions, Eaton has developed several models that are each tailored for operations in various challenging applications. In regions such as the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries where vehicles face strong challenges from harsh terrains and severe weather conditions, the different models of the UltraShift PLUS family provide high durability and can be applied to a broad spectrum of vehicle applications, including long distance, construction and off-road.

The UltraShift PLUS family provides the greatest breadth of ratio, torque and vehicle combination weights of any automated manual transmission available providing truck builders with the right transmission for their specific applications. Using electronic shift actuation and intelligent gear selection to determine the optimal shift points for efficiency and performance, the UltraShift PLUS transmissions create faster and smoother engagements, based on real-time information regarding gradients, weight calculations and driver throttle commands. They are ideally placed to meet the needs of customers running vehicles in extreme conditions, offering a significant advantage in torque and ratio coverage along with unlimited load weight rating.

Further technical benefits of the UltraShift PLUS transmissions include: a Hill Start Assist feature to prevent rolling back on an incline; automatic, manual and low mode selections; significantly improved maneuverability; thru-shaft power take off; and, an oil level monitor to enable easy fluid level checks. The UltraShift PLUS family of transmissions include the Vocational Active Shifting (VAS), Vocational High Performance (VHP), Vocational Construction Series (VCS), Vocational Multi Purpose Series (VMS) and Linehaul Active Shifting (LAS) platforms. The Multipurpose Extreme Performance (MXP) platform is available for off-road applications such as: logging, mining, oil field and construction, as well as regional use for city distribution and refuse collection work.