Electronic Controls for Mobile Hydraulics

Standard hardware and software are critical for efficient and economical systems. Andrew J. Smith Brian Van Batavia As the mobile-equipment industry evolves toward more-sophisticated systems, it is integrating more electronics with traditional hydraulics to address customer demands for higher performance and greater efficiency. The trend of increasing electronic content in mobile applications has been apparent for years, but initial adoption has been somewhat slower than one would expect. Two issues that may have kept electronics from becoming more mainstream until now were uncertainty over standards (or lack of standards), and whether an open or proprietary control architecture approach is best. Open architecture and predefined industry standards are two keys to successful electrohydraulics. And this holds for both software and hardware. It lets engineers choose from a wider range of components when designing machines, and helps ensure interoperability of different components as a system. The first step is a standardized approach to software development, as well as one robust enough to address different application, systems, and user preferences. Eaton engineers recently demonstrated the value of this approach in redesigning a mobile-logging trailer, used to pick up and load timbers for transport. For instance, the IEC 61131-3 programming standard does both, and is becoming increasingly prevalent in mobile applications. The standard defines common data structures and programming methods that let engineers collaborate on software development. For instance, it provides five graphical and textual languages for programmers to choose from. The choice of languages helps when engineers come from different backgrounds. Someone with industrial experience might use ladder diagram, while a software engineer who knows C programming may prefer structured text. IEC 61131-3-compliant programs are completely scalable and can be updated or enhanced as cirneeded. The standard approach also helps programmers create high-quality code with fewer defects, as the programming system itself alerts the user