Redmond Gary Australia has just completed the design and installation of a new winch controller featuring 7” Colour Screen and memory 20 times more capacity than the previous model. This ‘state of the art’ controller has been developed by the Redmond Gary Australian Engineering Department specifically for use on Recovery Winches. This versatile controller will be used by other equipment in the future.
The winch controller is designed to assist the operator in the course of normal winch operation. The controller monitors and displays the line tension, line speed and payout and warns the winch operator before an overload occurs or before a set limit is reached.
The load monitor system consists of the following main components:
- Weatherproof display module (IP65)
- I/O module
- 2 proximity sensors to measure payout distance, line speed and direction
- Load pin to measure line tension
- Light tower to indicate status of the line tension
The unit is very intuitive which means that training is simple and operators can quickly adapt to the user friendly format. The display can be customised to suit the full range of Redmond Gary Recovery Winches from 20kN to 80kN. In addition to being pre-set for particular work environments such as cable hauling with pre-set limits for tension, payout and speed, the unit also comes with audible alarms that coincide with the light tower display.
A light tower is located remotely from the display and has three light colours being green, yellow and red. The light tower works in conjunction with the pre-set limits programmed by the operator.
- Up to 85% of the pre-set limit, the light will display green
- Over 85% of the pre-set limit, the light will turn to yellow
- Over 95% of the pre-set limit, the light will change to red
- At 105% of the pre-set limit, winch motion will be cut automatically
The control system is also equipped with a data logging function incorporating a real time clock and continuous monitoring of the line pull when it reaches more than 10% of the pre-set limit. The data log can also be programmed to retrieve data at pre-set intervals. The data logger has a large storage capacity with a loop type storage system which means that after it is completely full, it will start to rewrite over the first lot of data.
The control console is provided with a USB port to download the data directly onto a stick.
An increasing number of our customers are demanding these ‘state of the art’ feature in order to meet quality and environmental requirements to prove the cables are being installed in accordance with the terms of the contract or the design parameters of the cable being hauled.
If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact Redmond Gary Australia.
