CALDARO
South Hall 1 – S61714 The electronic wave
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iVTInternational.com February 2020
MARCH 10-14, 2020 •
LAS VEGAS
ERGONOMICS CONEXPO
ELECTRIFICATION IS SWEEPING THROUGH TRADITIONAL MACHINE INDUSTRIES,
IMPROVING PRECISION AND MAKING IT SIMPLER TO AUTOMATE FUNCTIONS
The forestry was an early adopter of electronic
controlling systems in harvesters and forwarders.
Now mining and agriculture communities are exploring
how to improve their vehicles with electronic controls. A
bigger wave of digital controls for all kinds of vehicles
has begun. Caldaro has been preparing for this since the
1990s, and many other companies want to catch up.
The first steam-powered excavator was invented in
1796 in England, followed by the steam shovel in 1839
and the diesel-powered excavating shovel in 1930.
However, they still needed a cable-lift arrangement to
move the shovel. During the 1960s hydraulics
transformed the design of cranes and excavators, and it
took only a decade to replace almost all cable machines
with hydraulic machines. This led to higher productivity,
better cost-effectiveness and more durable equipment.
The next step was to control the hydraulic valves with
electric joysticks. Caldaro excelled at designing small
joysticks with superior ergonomics. The development
that started in the 1990s has evolved into an electronic
process with a controller between the joystick and the
hydraulic valves.
Operating dynamics
“I was already thinking about joysticks and the coming
electrical possibilities back in 1987,” says Tomas
Pehrsson, board member with Caldaro. “In 1993 I
founded Caldaro together with Maths Wahlbeck. The
first electronic joystick we sold for vehicles in serial
production was for a forestry machine made by the
Swedish company Rottne in 1994.”
Digitalisation has since revolutionised the industry
and it is now used in all kinds of heavy-duty vehicles.
The big advantage is improved precision in situations
where more control is required, such as digging ditches
or working in urban environments. Digitalisation
makes it easier to automate functions. Today at the
touch of a joystick a harvester fells a tree, removes
the limbs and cuts it into pieces.
Tough environment
The Swedish working environment
pushed the need for better-designed
cabins. The reality of hydraulic
systems is that hoses and
connectors will leak after a time
and the hoses take up a lot of
ABOVE: An operator controlling a Scooptram ST14 from
a mobile operator station with a Caldaro C15 Viper
Compact joystick
ABOVE: Viper XT, available with J1939 interface
BELOW: Joystick box with CANOpen interface and dual
independent output signals
space. The joystick grips that control the hydraulic
valves demand more muscle power compared to
working with electronic joysticks. Electronic
components are cleaner, neater and easier to move with
little effort. Furthermore, they allow machine designers
to develop computer-aided control, resulting in higher
efficiency and precision.
There are so many possibilities that follow; for example,
the way the driver can personalise the settings and make
the machine adapt to his particular way of reacting.
Advanced controls
One reason why digitalisation is speeding up
among machine manufacturers is the development
of more advanced controlling systems. CAN
(Controller Area Network) systems simplify
connecting several parts in an internal network, so
it is a straightforward process to transfer signals
directly, with less disturbance, and over
longer distances.
Tradition and old habits cause
suspicion among some machine
operators who claim they prefer
hydraulic machines because they can feel when an
excavator bucket hits a stone. With a digital controller, it
is possible to programme the machines so that you get a
vibration in the joystick if the bucket grab hits a stone;
this way it can still be ‘felt’ in your hand.
The future
You don’t have to be strong to operate huge machines
any longer, and overall the ergonomics get better with
electronic controllers. It’s comfortable for the operator to
have personalised settings, and it’s also part of making
the working environment safer when the operator gains
more control.
˝When I started to work at Caldaro nine years ago, the
bigger excavator manufacturers asked some general
questions about electronic controlling,” says Erik Kauppi,
sales engineer at Caldaro. “Today, I get more specific
questions about turning from grips on pilot valve to full
electrical controlling by joystick. To me, it’s a clear signal
that the development of heavy-duty machines is
moving to electronic controlling and electric power.” iVT
Author: Kristina Funck, writer, Löwströms, Sweden
PHOTO: ATLAS COPCO/EPIROC
/pivt
/iVTInternational.com