Schmersal - Heavy vehicles

Content

Heavy vehicles

On heavy machinery and vehicles, the operating and maintenance staff are exposed to high potential hazards. To protect the operating staff, the driver seats of e.g. farming vehicles or road building machinery are equipped with safety switches as deadman's control. Alternatively, footswitches must be actively operated to acknowledge the correct presence of the operator.

Potential hazards for the maintenance staff are also concealed behind the service and maintenancedoors of heavy machinery or vehicles. Here, actively operated enabling switches or safety mats can provide relief - or solenoid interlocks, which keep the doors closed until the hazardous movement has stopped.

Applications

Level monitoring

On belt transfer stations or in silo installations, the level of bulk goods such as granulates, powder, ore or seeds often needs to be monitored. For this application, Schmersal has developed a level switch for heavy-duty applications on the basis of the 441 type position switch. The gear stick ensures that the switch is actuated when deflected > 30°.

It comes with protection class IP65 and is suitable for ambient temperatures of –30 °C … +90 °C.

Protection of doors, flaps and protective covers

For the protection of doors, flaps and protective covers on mobile machinery, we offer the largest range of safety switchgear. The spectrum ranges from position switches with safety function over electromechanical safety switches and hinged safety switches to tamper-proof safety switches with magnetic or RFID-coded targets.

If a direct shutdown of the moving machine elements is impossible, we offer multiple product families of solenoid interlocks with different designs and interlocking forces up to 3500 N. Mechanical interlocking concepts with degrees of freedom in three directions provide for a smooth integration in the surrounding construction.

Deadman's control and self-driving machinery

The Z/T 415 microswitch is only one of the many microswitch series in the Schmersal programme. Microswitches are often used on self-driving construction machinery and work equipment, e.g. as a deadman's control in the driver's seat.

Foot switches are also frequently used on self-driving machines and equipment. They are used either as active switchgear or in accordance with the prevailing safety provisions as an enabling switch - for instance, if actuation by hand is impossible because other tasks needs to be completed using both hands.