Safim is an expert in hydraulic braking control of off-road vehicles in Italy, and enjoys a high reputation in innovation, as evidenced by a large number of patents owned by the company. The company is a part of the PT1 project team of CEMA (European Association of Agricultural Machinery), which is responsible for the formulation of agricultural and forestry vehicles on roads and safety regulations.
Stefano Togninelli, the sales director of Safim, said, "After being acquired by DexKo Global in recent years, the company has transited from a traditional family business to a large company. Safim is now part of the AL Ko Hydraulic Business Unit (part of DexKo). The hydraulic business will be further strengthened through the acquisition of Fluid Press, an Italian valve and filter element manufacturer. The acquisition process is expected to be completed by the end of October 2022, and the revenue of the business unit is expected to exceed 100 million euros in 2023. "
Safim's brake valve production
Safim will introduce new EH series power brake valves EH-S6O, EH-S6E and EH-S6T at the BMW Show in 2022. Togninelli said: "In order to develop this new series, we have studied the improvement of key performance: lower hysteresis, high performance repeatability, better control accuracy and faster response time. These products can be embedded into the braking system composed of ECU, sensor and software. These systems comply with the latest safety standards of ISO25119 and ISO13849. For off-road vehicles with intelligent braking, Safim has the ability to provide a complete hydraulic system , which can reach Class D safety performance level; Our engineering department is also working hard to reach level E. "
The first two valves, EH-S6O and EH-S6E, have similar functions. They are both power brake valves and are suitable for off-road vehicles with brakes on the front and rear axles. EH-S6O is a modular system, which is suitable for forward braking and is controlled by an electrohydraulic system. There is also a position sensor that can be superimposed on the main brake module, and a full hydraulic brake control is configured in a unit. S6E is a compact power brake valve, applicable to the design of one or two circuits; It can have a dual electro-hydraulic and mechanical command, or it can be guided by a redundant electro-hydraulic module.
EH-S6T is a dual design, dual circuit power brake valve, which is used for agricultural tractors and backhoe loaders. It can embed electrohydraulic commands in each part to achieve automatic braking.
However, the main pillar of Safim's future strategy and a highlight of the Bauma exhibition is the transformation from a manufacturer of hydraulic components to a system integrator and a supplier of machine guidance control systems.
"We hope to provide a modular system to control safe fracture operation, which is not only suitable for high-performance machines, but also for vehicles with low performance and high requirements," said Togninelli Since no one has determined the adoption rate of technology trends in the current market, it is important to provide our customers with a series of solutions to meet their needs. No matter what configuration you choose, it will not have a big impact on the machine layout. "
Togninelli cited some examples that the company is studying, including: intelligent function solutions, up to fully autonomous vehicles; Hybrid braking characterized by electro-hydraulic control and dual mechanical control, with the operator's mechanical override command. "All these new technologies will help customers to develop intelligent functions of the machine, such as speed control; ramp maintenance; collision avoidance using object detection; traction control to reduce fuel consumption and transmission and tire wear; automatic brake assisted steering; and full brake by wire."
These new technologies have some challenges, for example, all systems need to meet the latest stringent security standards. Togninelli said: "Safim has started a new journey of safety fault analysis, which is an analysis method to determine potential faults, impacts, detection and diagnosis. Failure mode, impact and diagnosis analysis (FMEDA) is a systematic analysis tool, which is used to obtain the failure rate, failure mode and diagnosis capability at the subsystem/product level."
Another challenge in system development is to define the process of co design with the customer. Togninelli added: "It is necessary to take some steps, not limited to defining technical specifications. One of the key areas that security related systems need to address is defining capabilities and scope of responsibility. The time to market is crucial. For this reason, Safim has strengthened its capability of simulation tools. We hope to provide a system that can be easily integrated into the machine layout and provide a validated software package. In terms of research and development, we Utilize internal technology, but also obtain technology from the outside in order to benefit from the latest technological developments in automobiles and road vehicles. "
The application of Safim in the fields of construction, agriculture and lifting equipment has been very mature. Other markets that the company is expanding are those that work in confined areas and need to easily implement more complex autonomous systems, such as mining, port machinery and air ground support equipment.
Togninelli finally talked about a strategic pillar of the company's development. "On the basis of the innovation pipeline, the future growth will come from strengthening the production base in India and taking more concentrated business actions in the Chinese market with the support of the local department of Al Ko."
