Functional safety in the electrification of mobile machines

Functional safety in the electrification of mobile machines

Functional safety is not always immediately in focus, but it plays a critical role in the electrification of mobile machines. Could it even be a competitive advantage for customers? Join us as we speak with Christoph Hofmann from Bosch Rexroth.

Is functional safety a differentiator for your customers in the market?

Yes, our customers see that as a distinguishing feature. The standards set requirements and these must be met. And these requirements always come from the machine level and are then broken down to the sub-function such as the drive. And that is a challenge. And with our experience from mobile hydraulics, we thought about how we could transfer this to an electric drive when we break everything down into physical values ​​from hydrostatic drive systems and then implemented exactly this basic function. That means that we can meet our customers' safety requirements as best as possible from the machine level in order to implement their overall machine concept.

That sounds complex!

Safety is already pretty complex. And the machines are also becoming more complex. We see automation on the rise. That means that people want to take more and more work off the driver's hands. It has to be safe. And if we look two steps ahead, we might not have a driver on board at all in the future. And then we can no longer argue that the driver will just step on the brakes if something goes wrong. So that means that the demands and the performance levels required to implement these functions will continue to rise.

Will functional safety then be able to anticipate situations?

We already have features on board that allow me to deduce what might arise from a situation. Then a vehicle control system can intervene early. That's a step in that direction.

Why are you particularly good at safety?

Safety is a very important topic at Bosch Rexroth, and we have taken it very seriously for decades. We have had our SafeMotion on the market in the industrial technology sector since the early 2000s. This means that we have almost 20 years of experience in functional safety development. This helps us enormously. That is one pillar. The second pillar is, we have the machine and application know-how in mobile hydraulics, which helps us every day. By combining the two domains, we are very well positioned.

In the podcast, Christoph explains which standards are crucial, what role the inverter plays and why functional safety requires hardware and software.