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Irrespective of the equipment category, their demand extends across the entire spectrum ranging from a simple forklift to the most sophisticated machine. The so called ?special optional features? of yesteryears have already been standard features and are fast becoming obsolete in light of continuous increasing industry emphasis on environment compliance, fuel efficiency, total life cycle costs and more. Driven by these new challenges, the equipment suppliers are responding by including man machine integration systems in their new generation equipment. These systems integrate data inputs from GPS, wireless communications, on line operational performance measurements, equipment diagnostics and other crucial functions into a simple electronic display in front of the operator enabling him take appropriate actions to deliver optimum performance. Some of the latest developments facilitate both the user and the supplier monitor equipment performance through web access and even revert with actionable instructions. The value of these powerful solutions, it is yet to be fully understood and accepted by Indian users for many reasons like higher cost of new generation technologies, unwillingness to break away from their past comfort zones and lack of skill sets to efficiently use or support the new technologies. In fact many consider it very risky to use these equipments.

Samip Desai, National Manager, Moba Mobile Automation (I) says, ?The construction and mining industry has always been driven with proven, conventional and economic methods of practice and therefore introducing new technology and new methods has been a little resistive at the first stroke particularly in developing markets. Machine control systems plays a vital role when it comes to efficiency and accuracy of the output generated and in markets like India these technologies are considered to be of less importance primarily due to lack of awareness of their benefits and the higher initial costs of such technologies. Resistance from the machine operators to learn and practice new technologies is also a major factor that hinders such technologies to penetrate in Indian market.

According to Harpreet Singh Wahan, General Manager - Sales & Marketing, Enovation Controls India the acceptance has been traditionally low but every market goes through this phase. He explains, ?One of the major challenges is the ?drop in? attitude of several system providers. Just because a system is successful in the West it is not necessarily right for India. This needs to change. The initial cost of implementation and misunderstood ?value proposition? these systems bring with them are the other major challenges faced.?

However, on a positive note Amit Hatgine, Senior Application Engineer - Controller Business, ifm Electronic India says, ?Many Indian customers have technical collaboration with companies in developed countries. In such cases, we have very less resistance to adopt machine control technologies. While those who are purely indigenous have to upgrade their machines in order to compete in the market.?

Advantages
Very tangible are the benefits of using these systems in different verticals such as earthmoving, road construction etc. Says Desai, ?There are some vital factors which are necessarily required to be addressed when it comes to earthmoving and road construction applications such as accuracy, time, reliability and efficiency. Modern day construction companies have started considering the quality of work done in their efficiency calculations, site managers can save both time and resources by doing the job right in the very first go instead of doing it fast and redoing the job again .With the help of machine control technologies we are able to address this factors very effectively. This can be advantageous in saving time and material together with accurate and increased productivity.

?Technology can act right from being a great guide to being the person in control of the performance of the equipment. From a small safety net for the engine to full authority hydraulic control - machine control technologies ensure there is a reduction in waste both in terms of material used and time consumed to get a job done. Equipment safety is an ever increasing aspect and we at Enovation Controls give a lot of importance to this,? says Wahan.

Speaking about the advantages from the OEMs point of view Hatgine had this to say. According to him a major advantage is that it helps sustain the market share against the high end products of competitor?s machines. By adding in small delta in the machine cost, they can offer equally technically sound machines to their end-users, and with these technologies, machine can have better fuel efficiency, less maintenance cost and user friendly operator interface. Also, they can take advantage to export and presence in global market.

Cost factor
Despite the importance and many a benefit, tangible and intangible, these systems can bring to the table, as Desai points out the general perception of higher cost is a major hurdle for the wide-spread use of these systems. For example, today OEMs can offer technology like ?intelligent compaction? system, which are designed to achieve optimum compaction with minimum number of passes to reduce the overall operating cost. Wirtgen offers intelligent compaction system like Hammtronic which is a microprocessor-controlled machine management system.

According to Girish Dixit, General Manager-Engineering & Design, Wirtgen India this system links, monitors and controls all important machine functions and makes machine operator free for other activities. All the information that the driver needs is displayed on an operating console with an information display. By monitoring and regulating central machine functions, Hammtronic prevents operator errors and enables the operator to concentrate on optimum rolling results.?

Atlas Copco offers ?compaction analyzer? with soil, asphalt compactors which helps the operator to understand when the maximum compaction has been achieved in every point of the surface. It eliminates guesswork, unnecessary passes, which results in an even compacted layer, with least time and efforts. However, there are not many takers, and the reason being, higher initial cost and lack of proper awareness. This has made the technology suppliers to come out with range of products which are cost-wise flexible. Says Desai ?Indian market is definitely a cost sensitive market and we being the technology developer have considered this factor by offering a range of cost-wise flexible systems. We focus on bringing the basic affordable technology in practice at first and later once the user gets acquainted we can offer them upgrade or higher end machine control systems.? Says Wahan, ?In sub Rs 10 - 12 lakh (sub $20,000) equipment, there is always this pressure on the equipment manufacturer to cut costs and they have traditionally done this by limiting the introduction of technology into their offering. It is not completely their fault as they have only responded to the dynamics of the Indian marketplace. A company like ours understands this and has over the past few years adapted to cater to this market. We at Murphy (by Enovation Controls) offer solutions right from say a US$. 40 intelligent engine safety net right up to full authority control that can cost up to a few thousand dollars.?

Hatgine avers, ?The initial high cost can be overcome by offering advantage such as machine safety and reliability, along with ease of operation, lowering the maintenance cost and ease of fault finding.?

Product offerings
Speaking about the range on offer Wahan says, ?Murphy (by Enovation Controls)has a complete range of intelligent rugged displays like the PV780 (7 inch), PV450 (4 inch) and the PV380 (3.8 inch). These are not only among the most rugged displays available but also have serious information processing and decision making capability. They along with our range of I/O modules like the SenderCAN, the MeCAN, the XM500 and the widely popular Mini Controller ?the MeCAN+ (plus)? are extremely popular in these applications. These integrate with sensors and provide ?total integration? to our OEM customer equipment. Hatgine says ?Our various electronic sensors (Vibration sensors, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, inclination sensors along with machine controllers, operator interface and in some cases, safety controllers are the fast moving systems in grading, paving, compaction, and drilling equipment. At this stage, we work only with OEM?s so that these technologies are properly supported by OEMs themselves as they are in remote field locations. As per our experience, mining equipment, building construction equipment and firefighting equipment manufactures play a major role in creating verticals as of now.?

Speaking about the verticals that drive the demand for control and monitoring technologies Desai says, ?We currently have major share in machine control systems for asphalt leveling equipment and drilling equipment in India. Leveling systems for asphalt pavers and tractors are some of the fast moving range of systems. We also enjoy a major market share in machine control systems for drilling equipment.?

We expect good market acceptance for our newly developed and launched low cost system for compaction (MCA 500) which is solely designed to suit the cost sensitive Indian market. This system is an entry level system for market like India and is very user-friendly which was also suitable for addressing the issues reported by the customer towards compaction. The unique compaction sensor helps the operator to visualise relative compaction on each stripes on a 3.5 inch color graphic display while rolling, along with surface temperature and can achieve optimum compaction. The system is designed keeping in consideration all the parameters of working conditions and ruggedness. This system helps in saving fuel and time resulting in increased efficiency and productivity. Correct level of compaction results in better life of roads and thus the expenses on reworks are significantly eliminated,? says Desai.

He adds, ?We operate in three verticals i.e. road construction, mining and waste logistics. Our major business is through OEMs. Most of these systems are supplied as standard OEM fitment. Apart from this, certain high end machine control systems like Big Ski for asphalt levelling are also supplied directly to end users to fulfill application specific jobs.

Speaking about the aftermarket he said, ?We design machine control technologies which are compatible with any make of machine which enables us to readily enhance aftermarket machines with machine control technologies. This market has great potential and we are looking to expand our reach by appointing dealers at strategic locations across India.?

Skill upgradation
What is the importance of skilled operators for these advanced equipment and machinery? According to Wahan in India typically the system implemented needs to be firstly rugged, secondly user friendly, and finally service friendly. He says, ?We at Murphy provide display interfaces in Hindi and other local languages, easy to read icons, simple instructions on the systems and keep the systems very service friendly. This ensures that even the not so skilled operator can operate these equipment with great control without being over intimidated by the technology introduced. We compliment this by regular training programs at our OEM and end user locations.?

Says Hatgine, ?In the development stage and till the system get matured, we focus on intensive training sessions and hands on practices on machine board. Also, this barrier can be overcome making the design of the system simple and user friendly. We make use of graphical display which has user friendly symbols, text messages etc. This simplifies machine operations, trouble-shooting.? According to Desai Moba is one of the technology developers who keenly focus on the interface of such systems with the user. Our user interface is very simple and easy to operate for people even without formal education. All of our systems therefore have a visual / symbolic interface and not only language based interface which become very easy for the operators to quickly grasp the functionality of such systems.?

Going ahead
The technology providers are very confident on the increasing use of machine control technologies in India. Says Wahan, ?What system providers need to ensure is that systems are not just ?drop in? systems from the West but developed and application wise engineered with the Indian equipment cost and user in mind. If implemented correctly, they will be accepted well into our market.

?By looking at various developmental projects in India, the future of machine control technologies is surely positive, says Hatgine. ?Demand for machine control technologies has gradually increased even in markets like India as people have started realising the importance and benefits of using such technologies. With the new government in place and huge projections for infrastructure development we strongly feel there is a tremendous scope for such technologies in near future. With tighter project deadlines and lack of manual labor, machine control systems will soon become a necessity will no longer be perceived a helping tool,? says Desai.

LMS- Payload Monitoring System for Tippers
The customer faced problems with logging the trips and production yielded by each tipper on daily basis. The conventional method is logging the details of each tippers manually which resulted in manipulated data. We therefore, helped the customer by offering the LMS system which automatically logs the details of each trip and can send the details over a webserver via GPS and GPRS gateway. This enhanced the customer to view the productivity and trips of each tipper online.

Techno-commercial benefits
The customer gets complete idea of the utilisation of each tipper and productivity yielded by each tipper. Tippers which are under / over utilised can be readily reported and corrective measures can be taken immediately. With optimum loading the customer gets full advantage of each loading cycle that too without compromising on safety aspects of the tippers.
Courtesy: Moba

- Agith Antony