CONTROLS
another. Recharging time is 15 minutes for a full charge, while five minutes of charging time will give up to four hours of use. Also in this neck of the woods, Tele-radio introduced their next- generation wireless platform remote controller, the PAQ, in April at this year’s Bauma trade show. This is not to say that the dangling cable- pendant controller is obsolete. There are situations where wireless transmission is not allowed – working with flammable liquids, for example, or in explosive atmospheres, where there is a risk from sparking or static electricity. However, Autec, at that same Bauma show, featured an expanded range of their wireless transmitters for hazardous environments by introducing new Curve (AJQ EX), Link (AJN EX) and M-PRO (AJE EX) transmitters. Or you can make the workplace more comfortable for the operator by removing the control room altogether from the site of operations. It can be placed far away, in another building (one less noisy and less dusty, an office building rather than a factory) or even in another town. No straight-line view of
the operation is necessary: cameras, perhaps dozens of them, can cover the entire field of the crane’s operation and display the views more clearly and magnified as desired, on as many screens as are wanted. And, for a process crane at least, whose
movements are limited and repetitive in a known (and probably people-free) environment, even that scenario can be improved upon: the crane can be made autonomous. Sensors – vision sensors, proximity sensors, load sensors, velocity sensors, position sensors, the whole gamut – feed information to software, which then controls the crane. It is by no means necessary that the software be AI-driven; conventional programming can perfectly well suffice to pick up the loads, transfer them to the destination, and return to pick up the next load with no human intervention. We can conclude that automation and
control systems go hand in hand. How much automation one wants or needs; whether this degree of it will increase in the future and if
so, can it be augmented with add-ons or will the system installed today need to be thrown out tomorrow; and how much a crane system needs to be integrated into the processes of the factory to make the entire plant a single sensor and data-driven entity with data feedbacks between the different components, all functioning together as an IoT (Internet of Things) system – these are all relevant questions. An auto repair shop or a metal fabrication
plant does not need such sophistication; a dangling cable control will do fine. On the other hand, a plywood production plant – where raw logs are fed in by a process crane at one end and plywood, palletised, stacked and wrapped in quantities and types ready-addressed to individual customers at the other – might well need this degree of sophistication and integrated control. In such plants, the logs are turned to make veneers; the veneers are rotated, pressed, glued, heated, cooled, sanded, knot-holes filled, sanded again; they are then passed by overhead cranes or a
TELE RADIO LAUNCHES PAQ CONTROLLER
At Bauma in April this year, Tele Radio launched its next-generation wireless control product line PAQ, which it claims is “a step into the future”. The first releases in the range, the SupraPAQ TH76 and its associated new R30 receiver, are available immediately through the Tele Radio network; others will be coming later in the year. The PAQ line seeks to address the ever-changing needs of the industrial workplace with the most stringent safety requirements.
The new line comes with a dedicated smartphone companion app that is said to completely change the way users interact with Tele Radio remote controls. The FieldManager enables operators
to easily view device information such as online manuals and settings. The app can also be used to manage the settings and installed plug-ins of the device. For future releases of the app, more features will come to further simplify operations, allowing for wireless firmware updates, full
data synchronisation, and remote support from Tele Radio technicians. Security remains paramount in industrial
remote-control systems, and the new platform can meet forthcoming safety regulations. The system maintains the critical emergency stop functionality but also introduces additional safety features that create multiple layers of protection for operators and equipment. Each remote control’s functions – radio communications, plugins and security – are assigned their own processor unit. This creates a natural barrier between the different compartments and prevents mutual interference. Individual customer software can therefore never affect a remote control’s ‘vital organs’. RFID tags for permission management mean that only certified users operate the most dangerous parts of the machine. The platform has been built in the
C programming language. Users can, therefore, integrate custom plug-ins into the remote controls to tailor the system to their specific needs. In future releases, the transmitters will be able to be run at the 433MHz and 915MHz frequency transmissions as well as the globally accepted 2.4GHz. There will be a rechargeable 2000mAh battery with a temperature sensor, and 48V charging for faster charging and extended runtime.
26 | May 2025 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55
