French Mechatronics Award for electronic joystick from Rexroth

Bosch Rexroth received this year’s French Mechatronics Award for its electronic joystick 4THEC5 SIL2 with advanced safety features.

Unique SIL2 and Performance Level d capability of the 4THEC5 SIL2 electronic joystick support manufacturers to create safe machines.

The yearly Mechatronics Award in France is co-organized by the three major French federations in mechatronics – THESAME, ARTEMA and THE CETIM. This year’s 8th edition focused on solutions, trends and innovations in the off-road industry including machines in the areas of construction, agriculture, material handling, railway as well as municipal vehicles. Bosch Rexroth won the award in the category “Big Companies Project” for its electronic joystick 4THEC5 SIL2 for construction and material handling machines such as excavators and fork lift trucks.

With its unique SIL2 and Performance Level d capability, the electronic joystick supports the machine manufacturers who are facing the assessment of the safety level of their products to achieve a certificate of European conformity. Thanks to “plug & play” capability, which is based on a single 4-pin connector, manufacturers can easily incorporate the joystick into the safety architecture of their machines.

Bosch Rexroth invented the first joysticks for construction equipment in 1968. Since then, the company has been continuously expanding its offering in hydraulic and electronic joysticks. “Thanks to our years of experience, our experts have achieved strong skills in research and development which allow us to propose innovative solutions and contribute our costumers’ success” says Marc Baeumlin, Technical Director of the Bosch Rexroth production site in Vénissieux, France.

The 4THEC5 SIL2 electronic joystick is compact and designed to last; it has been validated for five million cycles. It can be used alongside the existing Rexroth range of multi-function controllers (push buttons, three-way toggles, proportional switches, and presence detectors, LEDs) to achieve any configuration a machine manufacturer may require. To ensure maximum dependability, the joystick incorporates contactless sensor technology, as used in all Bosch Rexroth electronic controls.

The SIL2 system architecture features total redundancy for all data flows. For each control, two position sensors send separate signals to two microcontrollers, which check the consistency of the information using software specially developed by Bosch Rexroth. This redundant architecture ensures that the signals on the bus are fully secure.