Light Tower Control
Flexible Engine Control for Mobile Equipment
Light towers are critical assets within mining and construction sites. They provide powerful illumination that enables employees to do their job safely and efficiently. However, powering light towers can be time-consuming to manage manually. These tasks can be accomplished remotely by utilizing modern engine control systems. These systems control engines and generators that power light towers to lower emissions, remotely monitor equipment for access to real-time engine data and conserve fuel consumption for cost savings. With engine control technology, companies no longer need to turn off or adjust individual lights during breaks manually or to start or end the workday.
Engine Control Requirements for Safe Working Conditions
Terex is a global lifting and material handling equipment manufacturer for a wide range of commercial applications. It offers safe, heavy-duty, easy-to-use models of trailer-mounted light towers with a variety of features and options to maximize the productivity of each unit for job site needs. Having the ability to remotely start and stop the engines or generators supplying power to the mobile light towers was critical to ensuring lighting was available during operational hours, providing safe working conditions, and maintaining productivity. For best results, Terex required an engine control module with an automated start/stop feature to manage its Terex AL4000, AL5000 and AL8000HT light towers.
DynaGen™ Engine and Generator Controllers
The DynaGen™ ES52 autostart engine controller is ultra-compact and designed for harsh environmental conditions, delivering resistance to shock, temperature extremes, moisture and electrical interference, the types of conditions into which these light towers are often placed. Providing light towers with an automatic lighting management system provides automatic on/off light control by photocell, timer or both and is a cost-effective way to increase productivity. Allowing light towers to be shut down automatically results in fewer personnel hours spent manually controlling the units. In addition, fuel costs can potentially be reduced by not running the lights during daylight hours.
The ES52 control unit offers several engineered features for easy installation and service. The production-line-friendly design includes plug-in terminals, high-capacity removable relays, built-in kickback diodes, a pre-installed and removable fuse and the capacity for direct generator connection. It also offers full, field-adjustable settings. Another useful feature of the light management system is the ability to preset a light tower’s start-up or shut-down with a programmable timer. The tower might start up automatically with diminished ambient light, but an operator may wish for the lights to shut down before daybreak. DynaGen also supplies the timer to Terex.
“The potential for increased job site productivity is fairly obvious. Especially in applications where there is a large fleet of light towers or where they are located in remote locations, turning lights on and off every day can occupy a lot of time and manpower.” David Spears, Product Manager for Terex Light Towers