It started with the amazing floor-mounted P09 and its slim, modern design, followed by the P11, which is a wall-mounted version. These two mark the beginning of a totally new line of design for industrial-grade pedals.
Components on a machine cabin floor used to be ignored, including brake and throttle pedals. Not much happened during the last century. Caldaro made an enormous breakthrough in pedal design with the P09. Later Caldaro created the suspended version called P11. Both highlight a combination of simple design, protected electronics, and an emphasis on ergonomics that has become the signature mark of this innovative Swedish company.
A low pivot point for good ergonomics
Since the P09 became a success among designers of heavy-duty machines, customers asked for a wall-mounted version. The designers at Caldaro couldn’t just hang the P09 on a wall; the suspended pedal needed a new design. Customers involved in the process pointed out the importance of ergonomics.
”Theoretically, you should have no foot movement horizontally, just vertically,” explains Petter Löfgren, Technical Manager at Caldaro. ”Our mission was to create the world’s best suspended pedal ergonomically while providing the best control ever.”
The low pivot point is an important feature, it means the operator can rest the foot on the floor to get a stable and comfortable position. Even with the wall-mounted P11, it’s possible to rest the foot on the floor.
”When customers see our pedal P09 for the first time, they have never seen anything like it,” says John Repfennig, Sales Engineer at Caldaro, the Hudson, Wisconsin, office. ”They get impressed by its compact design.”
”They also like that both the P09 and P11 are available in so many configurations,” John continues. ”Choose your angle, spring forces, and decide if you want analog or CAN bus output signals.”
When the pedal is used for both accelerator and brakes, one usually wants a difference in the spring force so that braking feels more resistant than the accelerator pedal.
Mining is a real test for pedals
The culture at Caldaro is to work very closely with customers and learn about the working environment as well as special needs.
”I went to a mine to study the pedals in a mining machine that had been used for just three years. The pedals were practically eaten up by the environmental conditions containing moisture, salts, minerals, and high acid content in the water,” explains Claudio Talamo.
”Understanding that our pedal needed to endure such extremely harsh environments, we used an anodising surface treatment to obtain super durability and resistance to outside conditions.”
”The pedal P09 was put through a 10-million cycle test. After that, some people were blindfolded and asked if they could distinguish between the tested pedal and a brand new one. They couldn’t tell the difference.”
Corrosive water, salts, sand, and gravel require that you periodically flush the cabin with water. This is easy to do with a wall-mounted pedal like the P11 and safe when you can trust that all the electronics are completely protected.
More customers want CAN bus
There’s a shift going on from analog to digital signals with CAN bus in the machine industry. When our mining customers started buying the P09 for their mining machines, they wanted analog out-signals. Today they use CAN. However, pedals with analog out-signals are still in the majority, but since the cost for CAN bus is decreasing it’s now rational to use it in smaller machines as well.
”Therefore we see an increasing interest for using both the pedals, P09 and P11, with the limitless possibilities that CANbus tech offers,” says John Repfennig. ”We are just beginning to see how modern machines become more advanced and easy to use thanks to electrification and CAN.”
Read the printed edition of the Gazette #61: