The yearly Mechatronics Award in France is co-organized by the three major French federations in mechatronics Thesame, Artema and The CETIM. This year’s eighth edition focused on solutions, trends and innovations in the off-highway industry, with Bosch Rexroth winning the award in the category Big Companies Project for its electronic joystick 4THEC5 SIL2, for construction and material handling machines such as excavators and forklift trucks.
With its SIL2 and Performance Level D capability, the electronic joystick supports OEMs that are facing the assessment of the safety level of their products to achieve a certificate of European conformity. Thanks to plug and play capability, which is based on a single four-pin connector, manufacturers can easily incorporate the joystick into the safety architecture of their machines.
“Thanks to our years of experience, our experts have achieved strong skills in research and development which allow us to propose innovative solutions and contribute our costumers’ success,” said Marc Baeumlin, technical director at the Bosch Rexroth production site in Vénissieux, France.
The 4THEC5 SIL2 electronic joystick is compact and designed to last and has been validated for five million cycles. It can be used alongside the existing Rexroth range of multi-function controllers (push buttons, three-way toggles, proportional switches, presence detectors, LEDs) to achieve any configuration a machine manufacturer may require. To ensure maximum dependability, the joystick incorporates contactless sensor technology, as used in all Bosch Rexroth electronic controls.
The SIL2 system architecture features total redundancy for all data flows. For each control, two position sensors send separate signals to two microcontrollers, which check the consistency of the information using software specially developed by Bosch Rexroth. This redundant architecture ensures that the signals on the bus are fully secure.
June 19, 2015
