Low-Profile Jib Crane High-Strength Top Brace
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Solution Overview
Problem
Jib cranes in low-clearance applications face limitations due to the high weight of steel I-beam booms, which cause worker fatigue and reduced weight capacity when aluminum rails are used, and the additional diagonal brace required for improved capacity takes up valuable vertical space.
Innovation Solution
A low-weight jib crane design featuring a high-strength brace extending along the top of the boom, made of lightweight materials like aluminum or carbon-fiber, with a high-strength material like steel for reinforcement, allowing for increased weight capacity without significant weight or vertical space increase.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a steel I-beam boom is used, then the load capacity is high, but the weight is high causing worker fatigue
Solution Approach 1:
The boom is segmented into a lightweight main structure (aluminum or carbon-fiber rail) with a separate high-strength brace component. This segmentation allows the boom to achieve high load capacity through the brace while maintaining low overall weight, resolving the contradiction between strength and weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The jib crane employs composite construction by combining lightweight materials (aluminum or carbon-fiber rail) with high-strength materials (steel brace). This composite approach enables the structure to simultaneously achieve low weight and high load capacity, directly resolving the technical contradiction.
2Weight of moving object
If an aluminum rail boom is used, then the weight is reduced, but the weight capacity is significantly reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The aluminum rail boom is segmented from the support structure, with a high-strength steel brace added as a separate component. This segmentation allows the lightweight aluminum boom to achieve enhanced weight capacity through the brace without compromising its low-weight advantage.
Solution Approach 2:
The aluminum rail boom combines with a steel brace to form a composite structure. The aluminum provides low weight while the steel brace provides high strength, resolving the contradiction between reduced weight and reduced weight capacity.
3Strength
If a diagonal brace is added above the boom, then the weight capacity is improved, but the vertical space requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The brace is repositioned from a vertical arrangement (above the boom) to a horizontal arrangement (along the top of the boom). This dimensional change allows the brace to provide structural support while minimizing vertical clearance requirements, resolving the contradiction between weight capacity and vertical space.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of placing the brace above the boom (conventional approach), the invention inverts the arrangement by placing the brace along the top of the boom horizontally. This inverted configuration achieves the same structural support function while eliminating the vertical space problem.
4Strength
If a long steel I-beam boom is used, then the load capacity is maintained, but the worker effort to swing and stop the boom increases
Solution Approach 1:
The boom structure is segmented into lightweight aluminum or carbon-fiber rail with a separate steel brace, separating the load-bearing function from the moving structure. This reduces the weight of the moving portion while maintaining load capacity, significantly easing worker effort for swinging and stopping the boom.
Solution Approach 2:
The composite construction of lightweight rail with steel brace reduces the overall weight of the boom while maintaining high load capacity. This directly addresses the ease of operation by reducing the mass workers must accelerate and decelerate, while the steel brace ensures load capacity is maintained.
Data Source
AI summary
A jib crane, having a low-weight boom with a proximate end, a distal end, a top, a bottom, and a first length between the proximate and distal ends. A high-strength brace extends along the top of the boom from the proximate end by a second length. The boom is mountable to a support structure by way of the brace. The second length may be less than the first length and the brace is attached to the top of the boom and to a pivoting bracket, which is pivotably mounted to the support structure.