Product category:
Loadcells, Force Sensors and Torque Sensors
News Release from: Variohm Eurosensor | Subject: Potentiometers
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 03 April 2000
Swingo uses potentiometers on 4-wheel
steering
Schmidt UK's new Swingo compact sweeper uses Variohm Components supplied potentiometers on its four wheel steering system.
Schmidt UK's new Swingo compact sweeper uses Variohm Components supplied potentiometers on its four wheel steering system Trying to align the street sweepers' contra rotating brushes with the gutter whilst avoiding parked vehicles or street furniture needs concentration and with two wheel steering, this can prove very difficult
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 16 May 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The rear end of the vehicle often swings out presenting a major hazard to other road users.
Four wheel steering helps the situation considerably as changes in direction are far less violent.
The Swingo has a four-wheel steering arrangement whereby the front steering angle is always twice that of the rear (eg.
48° front - 24° rear).
The front and rear wheels are synchronised using a variable displacement pump and an electrohydraulic controller.
The actual wheel angles are measured and fed back into the controller by Novotechnik series SP2800 potentiometers supplied by Towcester based Variohm Components Limited.
The potentiometers are mounted on the wheels' kingpin.
The SP2800 units are particularly well suited to this type of application as they are robust, sealed and offer very long operational service life.
Most importantly however is that these are 'absolute' transducers, meaning they know where they are at all times, even after their power supply has been interrupted.
In the case of the Swingo, the driver doesn't have to go through any form of initialising or zeroing, he just climbs into the vehicle and drives.
Once set up the potentiometers look after the monitoring function without any other intervention.
Transducers using this technology are capable of giving reliable and accurate results over a very wide temperature and humidity spectrum which is of course, important when one considers the different weather conditions in which this type of vehicle is used.
In addition to road sweepers, the SP2800 series potentiometers are used on lorries and even Formula 1 racecars.
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