by Graham Black | Wed 22 May 2019
New Excavator Control
NEW EXCAVATOR CONTROL
Hydraulic control specialist SVAB, sister company to tilt-rotator manufacturer Steelwrist, is trialling a new form of excavator control based upon the intuitive systems used in forestry machinery.
On high-spec forestry harvesters and forwarders the operator does not individually manipulate each section of the crane to place the attachment in the correct position. Rather a crane tip control system, often called intelligent boom control, allows the operator to indicate where the attachment should be moved to, letting the machine’s digital brain decide how to achieve the desired result.
Over the past few years SVAB has been developing a similar system for construction excavators. Their latest prototype, called ToolTip control, was previewed at the Swedish MaskinExpo show, principally to obtain feedback from operators.