Eaton's easy800 series control relay simplifies control system

The latest newcomer to the fleet, the "Hornet', is a 40-ton colossus over 12m in length and with a usable tank volume of 17m3. This special vehicle enables all liquid and dry material to be pressure blown through lines up to 600m in length or up to 80m high, or sucked from a depth of 50m. Rolf Bart, Technical Centre manager at Weiss+Appetito Services AG, says: "The suction and pressure blowing force is ideal for roof greening when the customer says: "off with the gravel and on with the soil!'. However, all other un-pumpable materials, such as gravel, substrate, lean concrete, drainage concrete or gas concrete can also be conveyed quickly, cleanly and selectively to the right place."

As the previously available systems did not offer the performance required, the company therefore decided to develop the new generation of vehicles entirely by itself. The most important feature is the special compressor. Rolf says: "Whilst standard systems are normally only designed for one application, we have been able to optimise the plant for both suction and pressure blowing." Fuel savings of up to 20 per cent are now also possible thanks to a newly designed drive train. Rolf explains: "With operation times of up to 1200 hours a year, this is an important cost benefit for us."

For many years Weiss+Appetito has relied on the Eaton easy800 series control relays for the core of its control requirements. Rolf explains: "This simple system is extremely reliable, easy to program and can be simply expanded. It provides me with all the technical options I require to implement our solutions, which sometimes have to operate in very harsh conditions. It also comes with a large number of control inputs - a key requirement for our application. For the "Hornet' we need 30 inputs and 18 outputs just to implement the detection of limit switches, as well as to integrate the pressure, vacuum and temperature sensors."

Optimum support for the operator was also of prime importance when the new control system was developed. Previously, the user had to concentrate on a large number of different operating and display elements. Rolf expands: "We wanted to reduce this number and at the same time enable the customisation of the operating controls as required. The reason for this was that the logistical processes involved in the different application fields for our vehicles in Switzerland and overseas required individual operational procedures that we previously were not able to represent. For example, we wanted to integrate a full graphics colour display that could visualise operating states and call up service functions. The Eaton XV102 HMI seemed perfect for the task."

The combination of Eaton's easy controller and XV102 HMI display produced a compact and at the same time highly flexible automation system, which made it possible to integrate the individual requirements of a large range of different user groups for the special vehicle. Rolf is also thinking ahead: "The next step we can imagine is the multi-lingual design of the visualisation. This will allow us to meet specific national requirements with greater accuracy." The Eaton system offers Weiss+Appetito the right platform for this.

To learn more about Eaton's power management products, including the easy800 series control relays, visit www.eaton.uk.com/electrical.