For over five decades, the E-T-A registered mark has been recognised as a symbol of safety and reliability throughout the Australasian bus and coach industry. The German parts supplier has continued its stride into the local market, providing the right products to bus and coach manufacturers while also developing solutions for the future of transport.
While the company has been incredibly successful on its own, its recent partnership with Novo Transport Systems (Novo TS) has taken it to the next level.
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Novo TS works with Australia’s market leaders in the bus and coach industry to deliver the latest safety technologies, including security (CCTV) equipment, bespoke safety modules, fatigue management and diagnostic tools.
Recently, they had been focusing on creating a door safety system that complies with New South Wales legislation.
“The system enables existing bus OEM door systems to be compliant with NSW Transport Roads and Maritime Services Technical Specification 160 (TS-160) bus door safety system requirements,” Novo TS managing director Scott Kyle told ABC.
The NTS-160 system is a bolt-on solution that consists of a power distribution unit (PDU), voice module with built in speaker, door override/warning light assembly and data logger with removable media.
Utilising the bus body OEM’s door signals and door entrapment sequence, it controls the chassis OEM supplied interlocks to meet the specific functionality requirements of TS-160.
Needing a programmable PDU with CAN-Bus control to use in their door safety systems, Kyle says E-T-A was a top choice.
“We had been working with another company originally, but after they underwent some internal changes, we realised we weren’t going to be compatible anymore,” he says.
“That’s when we get into contact with E-T-A, and it was the best decision we could have made.”
After consultation with the E-T-A team and testing, the SCS1000 was selected for its features, reliability and space saving design.
The SCS1000 module is an extremely compact power distribution system with integrated logic. The module offers a wealth of functions together with high performance in a very small package, ideal in terms of upgradeability for fleet modernisation, retrofits and projects where space saving is paramount.
“The system fits in the palm of your hand and has 12 inputs and 16 outputs. There are physical pins on the module where you would wire stuff into, and they also have a ton of soft inputs and outputs, which is where if you’re pairing it up with other modules, it’s going to talk via CAN.” Other benefits Kyle says were the ease of integration of other components such as CAN Bus Loggers with the SCS1000. E-T-A Australia assisted all the way with comprehensive local support to enable successful systems to be completed.
“The best thing about E-T-A products is that while previously you would have had to employ an electrical engineer, you can now rely on them to bridge the gap,” Kyle says.
“They have created a good software interface that allows us to design complex solutions in an intuitive way.”
The SCS1000 gave Novo TS full control over their projects, something which Kyle says they were incredibly grateful for.
“We now have 100 per cent control over our products and our projects, so we do all the in-house logic and design for the application.That’s all us.If we need to make modifications, or change anything, we can do it ourselves. It just gives us total control.”
Since using E-T-A’s product, Novo TS has experienced zero failures and are looking forward to continuing working with them in the future.
“We are big fans of E-T-A and its excellent product. I couldn’t imagine using anything else.”
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