The snow groomer market is characterized by the need for highly reliable and efficient vehicles capable of operating under harsh conditions. Prinoth is headquartered in Vipiteno/Sterzing, Italy, and a global leader in off-road technology, with expertise not only in snow grooming, but also crawler carriers and vegetation management equipment. Since becoming TTControl’s first customer in 2001, Prinoth has maintained a strong and collaborative relationship with the company, further strengthening their partnership over the years.
We had the chance to check in with Martin Kirchmair, Technical Director at Prinoth. He is responsible for the snow grooming business as well as for the global alignment of R&D and product portfolio management. He explained how the collaboration between Prinoth and TTControl began, and how it has evolved over the years.
TTControl as hardware, software, and development partner
A good partnership starts with a successful first project: Prinoth began working with TTControl almost 25 years ago, when they were developing the Leitwolf snow groomer ranges and were looking for a partner to develop new hardware and software for the machines.
TTControl is located close to Prinoth’s headquarters and thus some employees knew each other even before the start of the collaboration. However, TTControl’s unique set of competencies also played a major role in choosing to work together, explains Martin Kirchmair: “TTControl’s offering in terms of hardware and software competence was pretty unique in our area, and they also got in the experience from the automotive sector for the off-road sector, which is very interesting.”
TTControl supplied electronic control units and a human-machine interface solution for this first project. In the coming years, it also supported development and technology innovation for two milestones of the cooperation - the introduction of the first version of the electronic platform for Prinoth’s fleet in 2011, and the second version with advanced electronic solutions, larger ruggedized displays and nicer visualization, which entered the market in 2018.
The partnership is not only successful on product level, says Martin Kirchmair, “One nice thing is that we are living very closely together in Italy and South Tyrol. That makes it easy to work together. We talk the same language; we have the same understanding and ideas. It helps that both companies share a certain amount of craziness where we come up with new ideas, where we challenge each other to push the boundaries further to come up to a perfect solution at the end of the day.”
Innovative highlights include the launch of a fully self-driving vehicle, or the partnership in the Autonomous Operation Cluster (AOC). This cross-market initiative aims to bring more automation to road construction equipment and specialized vehicles.
Continued collaboration on future-proof technology solutions
The snow groomer market continues to evolve and is very technology-driven, according to Martin Kirchmair, “Prinoth is the most innovative company in this area. The main challenge for us is to always push the machines further, since the customers are requesting new functions on the machines, new ideas to support the operators better, and always a perfect slope behind the machines.”
A significant trend for the future is the shift towards more autonomous operations and operator assistance functions, similar to advancements in many other industries. Additionally, alternative drive options are becoming increasingly important. With the market evolving in this direction, Martin Kirchmair says TTControl and Prinoth will continue their collaboration on future-proof technology: “TTControl and Prinoth are working together, also looking into the future. Our vision is to further upgrade the machines to help our customers to do their job better. And that's what we saw in the last years and see especially for the future - that software, sensors, and such play a much more important role.”
TTControl is Prinoth’s supplier and partner for the electronic platform on their complete snow groomer range. From the very beginning, TTControl has delivered safe and secure software and hardware solutions. The extensive product portfolio has facilitated seamless upgrades, adapting to evolving performance requirements and operator needs.
Future-proof electronic control platforms for special vehicles
TTControl offers a wide range of solutions for various industries, including agriculture, construction, and municipal. Its hardware and software competence allows for customer-specific developments and seamless integration of its controllers and displays into platform solutions for special vehicles such as snow groomers.
Together with Prinoth, TTControl developed a standardized control platform for Prinoth’s snow groomers. TTControl supplied electronic control units (ECUs) and I/O modules in different sizes, as well as the human machine interface (HMI) for the control platform, and programmed the application software to ensure a high degree of standardization.
TTControl has a broad product portfolio that enables future-proof customer solutions. Roberto Ferrari, Managing Director, TTControl Srl, Brixen, explains, “Our ECUs and HMI solutions can be integrated smoothly into various platforms, and they are built with scalability in mind. That means we can support Prinoth’s changing requirements by upgrading their electronic control platform with a more powerful ECU family or a next-generation HMI. In addition, our Application Development Center allows us to provide Prinoth with a dedicated offer, boosting efficiency during the software development phase, especially for the integration and development of more autonomous operation applications.”
Originally, Prinoth used ECUs from the TTC 50 family, the eVision2 displays, and a customized 8.4” display. The TTC 50 family includes a range of mid-sized, freely programmable ECUs, and the safety-certified I/O module TTC 48XS. For more demanding applications, such as Prinoth’s snow groomers, several ECUs can be connected to form a network.
The current control platform used across Prinoth’s snow groomer portfolio includes ECUs from the TTC 500 family and the Vision 312:
- The TTC 500 ECUs are freely programmable safety control units for high-end applications in harsh environments. Like the TTC 50 family, they have a compact, automotive-style housing, are equipped with a powerful processor, fulfill safety requirements up to SIL 2 (IEC 61508) / PL d (ISO 13849), AgPL d (ISO 25119), and ASIL C (ISO 26262), and offer a wide range of configuration options.
- Vision 312 is the largest member of TTControl’s rugged operator interface generation, the Vision 3 family. The 12.1” display was chosen to accommodate the higher degree of information needed and offers improved graphics with a new menu structure and a wider range of functions. Vision 312 has a robust, slim touch screen featuring short boot-time, and is easily compatible with other displays in the Vision 3 family. Operator experience has also been enhanced, with perfect sunlight readability, and an integrated loudspeaker.
The enduring and successful collaboration with Prinoth highlights TTControl’s capability to support and adapt their solutions to meet new requirements and market demands. "Prinoth was our first customer – and we have a great partnership, on a personal and on a technical level. For us, Prinoth is one of those customer success stories, where our software competence and scalable solutions were key to adapting the customer’s control platform over the years,” says Roberto Ferrari.
