Article published in the iVT magazine.
The challenge: To customise truck bodies while streamlining the production process. The solution: an embedded configuration tool. The result: a future-proof range.

Customisation typically calls for a major engineering effort and considerable extra production time. However, a new configurable control system used by Zetterbergs (a major supplier of truck bodies in the Nordic market) makes it possible to handle individual customisation of each machine while radically reducing the engineering effort, production time and installation cost. 
    The highlight of the new system solution is the embedded configuration tool, running in the display unit of the onboard control system. The equipment options for each unique customer order are fed into the configuration tool via the touch-screen interface of the display. The configuration functionality in the control system software. This results in a graphical user interface (GUI) and a control application that is tailored for each truck body.
    The system has been developed by the advanced machine control specialist CC Systems, which supplies both the system software and hardware. Zetterbergs equips a range of standard truck chassis with different truck body attachments such as dumpers, tippers, snowploughs and hook lifts. These require a system that manages hydraulic control, as well as electrical inputs and outputs. Each truck may also be equipped with a range of options such as rear-view cameras or working lights, meaning the control system needs to manage different configurations of I/O and different kinds of I/O signals.
    The platform solution is based on CC Systems’ CrossTalk concept, a generic system platform for machine controls. The created architecture can reduce the number of components in the control system and at the same time future-proof Zetterbergs’ system solution. Through the use of CANopen, new units can easily be integrated into the system without the need for redesign. …

Read the whole article