June 29, 2005
TTControl, the supplier of electronic control systems for special vehicles and off-highway equipment, announces its successful cooperation with WM-Mulser in an innovative development project for the next generation of high-tech ice resurfacing machines. The new WM Evolution combines the long term experience of WM-Mulser as a renowned manufacturer of high-capacity ice resurfacing machines with the technological know-how of TTControl. TTControl provided WM Evolution's entire electronic system.
WM Evolution offers state-of-the-art technology with complex control functions for consistent ice resurfacing. The technical core of the electronic system in WM Evolution is formed by TTC 200 and TTC Vision control units from TTControl that ensure utmost safety and comfort for the driver.
"WM Evolution benefits considerably from the great flexibility and extensive safety features of the TTControl solution", says Bernhard Leimegger, WM-Mulser's Consultant for Machine Safety. All safety-critical applications in the machine run on TTC 200, which is designed to fulfil high safety levels according to the IEC 61508 standard. A TTC Vision unit is implemented for in-cockpit visualization and is linked to a central color display, that allows monitoring of all major vehicle parameters.
"TTControl provided the complete electronic control solution, covering all relevant driving, steering and visualization functions in our WM Evolution," states Wolfgang Mulser, Head of Engineering at WM-Mulser. "Obtaining all system components from one source helped to accelerate considerably the development and integration processes."
The electronic system assures multiple upgrade capabilities for the machine. New machine functions can be implemented by changing the software. This provides enormous flexibility and time savings to system developers. Even changing control units in an existing network is significantly eased, since all parameters of the TTControl boxes are stored in an external memory device. The system automatically detects the changing of a controller and downloads the logged parameters from the memory device.
The complete software package running on TTC Vision and TTC 200, including a special remote maintenance, was developed by TTControl. By connecting the vehicle via network cable to a PC, it becomes easy to adapt, activate or deactivate certain machine parameters. The maintenance system keeps error logs and records of system operation. It is furthermore possible to perform remote diagnosis via the internet; this enables maintenance of machines all over the world.
