Smart Suite is a platform of fully integrated, connectedvehicle features that converts operating data from the drivetrain into actionable insights for enhancing productivity, improving operator and machine safety, and reducing total operating costs. Initially introduced as a package of options for Spicer axles, the Spicer Smart Suite technology will ultimately extend to additional Spicer drivetrain products.
"As the construction market becomes more competitive, equipment manufacturers and owners are pressed to drive greater efficiencies," says Aziz Aghili, president of Dana Off-Highway Driveline Technologies. "Dana is actively developing a wide selection of leading-edge technologies, led by Spicer Smart Suite technology, that can transform passive drivetrain components into intelligent, powerful forces for boosting performance."
Spicer Smart Suite technology is an integrated system that collects, manages, analyzes, communicates, and acts on data sourced from the drivetrain, including load monitoring, condition monitoring, torque management, speed sensing, and steering sensing.
This technology provides useful, actionable insights to end users on and off the vehicle, allowing critical alerts and analysis to be shared on vehicle central display panels, via tablets, and in fleet management centers. It is also designed to take these insights a step further by performing key functions independent of operator intervention.
Spicer Smart Suite technology enhances the intelligence drawn from drivetrain components through a solution that includes: sensors that capture data from key drivetrain operating processes; computing capabilities that consolidate, manage, and analyze data, and; compatibility with common vehicle communication protocols and telematics systems.
Spicer Smart Suite technology seamlessly integrates vehicle intelligence technologies with Dana’s line of drivetrain components. As a result, Spicer Smart Suite technology provides the deepest, richest, and most accurate insights into vehicle performance, supplying greater long-term value over the remote-mounted and retrofitted solutions currently available from thirdparty providers, Dana says.
Spicer Smart Suite technology is fully integrated into component housings, delivering optimum packaging and ensuring that sensitive mechatronic sub-systems are fully protected from accidental damage and the impacts of typical operating environments.
The first application of the Spicer Smart Suite concept is a new intelligent load monitoring system (ILMS) for telehandlers. While traditional load monitoring technology for telehandlers collects measurements from a single remote-mounted or retrofitted load cells on the rear axle, Spicer ILMS uses data from across the vehicle to prevent tip-overs more effectively, provide better estimates of static loads, and supply more intelligent calibration management.
