Forestry Machinery and Off-Road Vehicles

Skogforsk (a Swedish institute for forest connected research) reached out to PCTEL Europe AB finding solutions to improve communications condition to and from heavy vehicles working in remote forest areas with poor connectivity. The PCTEL Europe AB R&D team realized that the antenna to be developed needed a low profile and flexible configurations.

Working with KTH (Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm), Skogforsk, Stora-Enso, Sveaskog, SP Statens Forskningsinstitut as well as John Deere, PCTEL developed the antenna LPCA. This antenna is second to none since it has multi functionalities and the mechanical design ensures that it cannot be damaged by trees and branches which easily can cut of ordinary rods which up to now has been the preferred solution.

Forest machinery is a high-tech business that needs continuous connectivity. Among the customers who have chosen PCTEL’s low profile solution are John Deere, Komatsu Forest, Ponsse and Ecolog.

Challenges

• Extremely rough environment
• Reliable connectivity is safety critical
• High tech business with very high demands on performance
• If you loose connectivity, you loose business

Solution

• We developed the high performing LPCA antenna platform – Low profile, no rod. Also in combination with Alldisc
• Extremely robust design put to the test on a daily basis
• Proved high performance
• Combination antenna
• Customized solutions possible to fulfill every need