Skip links

The northernmost airport in the EU.

Processes at the airport optimized by optiMEAS

Temperatures of up to -30 degrees Celsius can be expected at Ivalo Airport in Finland in winter. Finnair departs daily from here to Helsinki. The winter months are high season in Ivalo. Winter sports enthusiasts from all over the world come to this otherwise very lonely place.

Cargo and sports equipment usually go on the journey with the passengers. Laweco Maschinen- und Apparatebau GmbH, a leading supplier of high-quality lifting systems based in Espelkamp, is testing its new prototype of the electrically driven ?Cargo Master CMLT ? GREEN LINE?

For the coming winter, the cargo handling vehicle with scissor lift table type GREEN LINE with a lifting capacity of 3,700 kg and a lifting height of 3,600 mm will be in service there for aircraft loading. Reliability and availability are to be ensured even in a place with harsh conditions like Ivalo through simple and predictive maintenance and servicing. On board the Cargo Master there is therefore a optiMEAS smartMINI System with the task of recording relevant vehicle data every 5 minutes.

According to Guido Weissbrich, product manager of the world-famous traditional brand Cargo Master, the choice fell on the data logger from optiMEASbecause it offers ?the optimal performance for the application? Your device can do more than those of the competition. And indeed, the capability of the smartMINI as a fully-fledged, robust computer with the possibility of data evaluation beyond the mere collection of data ? a user-oriented and inexpensive compact solution from the house of optiMEAS.

The decisive factor was the extended temperature range

Temperature data, both internally from the control unit such as hydraulic oil and engine temperatures, and externally in relation to the sometimes extreme outside temperatures, are of particular interest. But also operating times, position determination and any error codes from the vehicle control system are continuously recorded. With the extended temperature range of -40° to +70 °, a directly connected PT100 sensor, 2 CAN interfaces, LTE modem and GPS, the smartMINI as an intelligent diagnostic system exactly meets the requirements of this application.

The application provides for a separate power supply (DC/DC converter 80V/24V) for the smartPRO in order to be able to continue recording the ambient temperatures even while the battery is charging. The LTE modem integrated in the device transmits all data directly to the optiMEAS own cloud server (www.opticloud.de). Analyses can be carried out via this and notifications of possible error states can be made. At the same time, the data is available via the web frontend or the PC software. optiCONTROL available for download and further processing. A user-friendly overview illustrates the various temperature excursions and events in context.

It is expected that in autumn another unit of the latest generation of Cargo Master, with a smartMINI equipped, to Munich for field testing. Laweco plans to record further vehicle data in the future, as well as to communicate parameter values or even remote updates of the control unit software.

The device Behind

Latency-free transmission of fieldbuses via the Internet

In order to be able to access the control of the machine in the field and change parameters literally from the desktop, the optiMEAS applied for a patent as part of a master's thesis: for the latency-free transmission of field buses via the Internet. This allows the data traffic to be visualised directly on the PC by means of a server from the diagnostic device. Access via smartphone or tablet is also possible, up to and including updating the entire control unit software.

Customized applications

Only what the customer releases is observed. The control of a machine can only be accessed when the key switch in the control cabinet is operated. The customer has his data and the functions associated with teleservice in his hands. Characteristic for optiMEAS products is not only the modular hardware but also the flexible app concept. The basic software is accompanied by an app tailored to the specific application. This allows us to react quickly and specifically to customer wishes and thus create robust and easy-to-maintain applications on our systems," says Burkhard Schranz.