Expandable Heavy Equipment Pull Element Stiffening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing expandable heavy equipment, such as crawler cranes, have a relatively large weight that reduces the payload capacity for a given size, limiting their efficiency in industrial applications like construction and resource extraction.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates an elongated pull element with a bundle of load-bearing fibers, enhanced by an exoskeleton of rods and compression means, which increases bending stiffness and maintains a consistent length, allowing for a more compact and lightweight structure that can handle heavy loads effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If steel rods or plates are used for the pull element, then the structural strength and reliability are improved, but the weight of the equipment increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pull element uses a composite structure combining carbon fiber bands (lightweight high-strength material) with aluminum cover plates (protective outer layer). This composite design achieves the required structural strength while significantly reducing weight compared to traditional all-steel construction. The carbon fiber provides tensile strength and the aluminum cover provides protection and structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs thin aluminum cover plates that enclose the carbon fiber bands. These thin metallic shells provide protective function and structural support without adding significant weight, allowing the lightweight carbon fiber core to be effectively utilized while maintaining overall strength requirements.
2Weight of moving object
If the equipment is designed for expandability to reduce transport weight, then the payload capacity for a given size is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The equipment is divided into multiple separable components including the pull element with its aluminum covers and carbon fiber bands, frame elements with pin-hole connections, and modular boom sections. This segmentation allows the equipment to be disassembled into compact units for transport and reassembled at the operational site, reducing transport weight while managing complexity through standardized connection interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The equipment transitions between static transport configuration and dynamic working configuration through pin-hole connections that allow controlled assembly and disassembly. The pull element can be adjusted between compacted state for transport and extended state for operation, providing dynamic adaptability between weight optimization and functional requirements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution significantly reduces the weight of the equipment while maintaining or exceeding the payload capacity, enabling more efficient transportation and operation with improved handling and structural integrity.
Implementation Method 1
stiffening means for increasing the bending stiffness of the elongated pull element compared to the bending stiffness of the bundle of load bearing fibres
Implementation Method 2
The elongated pull element is designed to transfer a pull force in the working condition
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
Figure 6~9
AI summary
An elongated pull element (14), in particular for an element of an expandable heavy equipment (1) comprises a bundle of load bearing fibres (41) extending along the length of the elongated pull element (14), and stiffening means (54) comprising an exoskeleton for increasing the bending stiffness of the elongated pull element (14), compared to the bending stiffness of the load bearing fibres (41).