Patent 7514805 was granted and assigned to Linde Material Handling on April, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A drive axle for a working machine, in particular an industrial truck, has at least one electrical traction motor (1 or 2) and a second electrical machine, the traction motor (1 or 2) being arranged in the axial direction. In order to extend the field of use of the drive axle, according to the invention, the second electrical machine is electrically connected to the traction motor (1 or 2) and forms, together with the traction motor, an electrical converter. The second electrical machine is drive-connected to a combustion engine (12) and is provided as the generator (11) of the electrical converter.