AUTOMOTIVE Archieven - CTRL engineering

Long story short

One type of crane, tractor or excavator looks nothing like another, yet sometimes the exact same gearbox sits inside different brands and models. Calibrating and testing that gearbox separately for every machine it ends up in would be unaffordable and endlessly time-consuming. A manufacturer of gearboxes for the off-highway sector (construction and agricultural machinery) ran into exactly that scaling problem. Every machine has its own weight, load and driving behaviour, and therefore its own shifting behaviour. One prototype per variant was no longer a workable option.

What does this mean for you?

Does the same component need to be recalibrated for you too, every time it goes into a different machine or configuration? CTRL engineering validates every combination virtually, so you save that work without sacrificing reliability.

The challenge

The same gearbox was fitted by multiple manufacturers, each with their own machine dynamics and performance requirements. The control software had to be validated and calibrated for every vehicle type, without building a physical prototype each time.

Our approach

CTRL engineering set up an approach in which the full combination of gearbox and machine was first rebuilt and tested virtually. Control algorithms were developed and validated in that virtual environment, for each gearbox-and-machine combination separately, so calibration and validation for every vehicle type could happen without ever building a physical prototype.

“Virtual calibration lets our clients optimize control software early, saving time and costs across multiple platforms.”

- Mathieu Dutré, Managing Director CTRL engineering

The result

No more physical prototypes needed for every variant, virtual calibration and validation of the control software for multiple configurations at once, and more consistent software behavior across all platforms. Field tests turn from hunting for bugs into one final, reassuring validation step.