ERGONOMICS & STYLING
CALDARO
The electronic wave
The forestry was an early adopter of
electronics in harvesters and forwarders.
Now mining and agriculture communities are
exploring how to improve their vehicles with
electronic controls. A bigger wave of digitized
controls for all kinds of vehicles has begun.
Caldaro has been preparing for this since the
1990s. 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 costeffectiveness
and more durable
equipment.
The next step was to control the
hydraulic valves with electric
joysticks. Caldaro excelled at
designing small joysticks with
92 iVT International Off-Highway 2020
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.
The joystick and 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 Maths Wahlbeck and I founded
Caldaro. The first electrical joystick we sold for
vehicles in serial production was for a
forestry machine made by the
Swedish company Rottne in 1994.”
Digitalization has since
revolutionized 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.
Digitalization makes it easier to
automate functions. Today
at the touch of a joystick
a the harvester fells a tree,
removes the limbs and
cuts it into pieces.
MAIN: Operator
controlling Scooptram
ST14 from mobile
operator station with
a Caldaro joystick C15
Viper Compact.
LEFT: Joystick box
with CANOpen
interface and dual
independent output
signals critical
functions
DIGITIZATION IS SWEEPING THROUGH TRADITIONAL
INDUSTRIES, IMPROVING PRECISION AND MAKING IT
EASIER TO AUTOMATE FUNCTIONS