During the past three years the Institute for Fluid Power Drives and Controls in Aachen has developed a new hydraulic system for mobile machinery called STEAM. The system represents a new step in excavator hydraulics, as it aims to reduce both the hydraulic system losses as well as those of the internal combustion engine by using a hybrid hydraulic architecture with accumulators. Starting with initial simulation studies the development has been followed by scaled test bench measurements and has progressed to a full scale validation using an 18 t excavator. The following publication aims to summarise the results obtained thus far with the aim of making them available to industry and encouraging their implementation in future applications.