System and Method for Controlling a Hydraulic Supply System on a Mobile Machine

A control system for controlling a hydraulic supply system on a mobile machine, wherein the hydraulic supply system includes a pump supply for supplying a pressurized fluid to a plurality of consumers carried by the mobile machine, the control system comprising:

• an electronic load sensing (E-LS) system for controlling a pump supply pressure (PSP) of the pump supply in dependence on a hydraulic load demand of at least some of the consumers, the E-LS system including at least one controller and a plurality of pressure sensors, each pressure sensor associated with at least one valve of the hydraulic supply system and configured to forward to the at least one controller a pressure signal indicative of a sensed load sensing pressure (LSP) of the at least one associated valve,
• wherein the at least one controller is configured to monitor pressure signals from the pressure sensors and to increase the PSP in response to an increase in the sensed LSP of one of the valves associated with a pressure sensor above a current PSP;
• wherein the at least one controller is configured when operating in at least one mode of operation compare the sensed LSP reported by each of the monitored pressure signals with a respective pre-defined upper limit, in which the respective pre-defined upper limit is a value assigned to at least one device selected from the group consisting of the pressure sensor forwarding the pressure signal and a valve associated with that pressure sensor, and to stop increasing the PSP if a sensed LSP reported by any of the monitored pressure signals reaches the respective pre-defined upper limit;
• and
• wherein the at least one controller is configured to apply different pre-defined upper limits of LSP in respect of at least two of the at least one device selected from the group consisting of the pressure sensor forwarding the pressure signal and the valve associated with that pressure sensor.