Lightweight Trailer Rail System for Three-Wheel Lifting Machine Transport

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

The challenge is to transport three-wheel lifting machines efficiently while adhering to legislative weight limits and ensuring safety, as conventional trailers with high empty masses restrict payload capacity and pose handling risks due to excessive weight.

Innovation Solution

A specially designed transport trailer with a lightweight structure, featuring two side rails and a central rail, optimized to accommodate three-wheel lifting machines, allowing for secure loading and unloading, and capable of being coupled to a light vehicle, thereby reducing the overall weight and improving handling safety.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Strength

If a conventional trailer with high empty mass is used, then the structural strength and stability are improved, but the payload capacity is reduced and the total authorized rolling weight is exceeded

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestructural strengthVSAvoidpayload capacity
Core Design Contradiction:
StrengthVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The trailer structure is segmented into a lightweight chassis and separate functional components (side rails, central rail, mudguards). This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function while using minimal material, reducing the overall empty mass from conventional trailer levels to enable payload capacity for heavy lifting machines without exceeding total authorized rolling weight limits

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of uniformly strengthening the entire trailer structure, local quality is applied by concentrating structural elements only where needed: side rails positioned to support lateral loads, central rail for longitudinal support, and mudguards for protective coverage. This localized approach provides necessary structural strength at specific points while minimizing overall material usage and empty mass

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Stability of the object's composition

If a trailer with high empty mass is used, then the structural stability is improved, but the handling safety and vehicle control are worsened

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestructural stabilityVSAvoidhandling safety
Core Design Contradiction:
Stability of the object's compositionVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The trailer is divided into discrete structural components (chassis, side rails, central rail) that can be independently optimized. This segmentation allows the structure to achieve stability through proper component placement and configuration rather than through excessive mass, improving handling safety by reducing the total weight that the towing vehicle must control while maintaining structural integrity during transport

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The invention changes the mass parameter of the trailer from conventional high values to a reduced value, while compensating for structural stability through optimized geometric parameters (rail positions, spacing, and configuration). This parameter change improves handling safety by reducing the inertia and weight that affect vehicle control, while the reconfigured structural parameters maintain the necessary stability for safe transport

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Quantity of substance

If the trailer mass is reduced, then the payload capacity and handling safety are improved, but the structural strength is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepayload capacityVSAvoidstructural strength
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSStrength

Solution Approach 1:

Structural strength is maintained through local quality by positioning side rails and central rail at specific locations where loads are applied. The rails are configured with appropriate spacing and support points to bear the necessary forces from the lifting machine wheels, providing sufficient structural strength at critical locations while keeping the overall trailer mass reduced to maximize payload capacity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The invention transitions from a conventional two-dimensional trailer bed to a three-dimensional rail system configuration. The side rails and central rail create a spatial framework that provides structural strength through geometric arrangement and load distribution in multiple dimensions, enabling the trailer to support heavy payloads with reduced mass by utilizing spatial efficiency rather than material quantity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentEP4375139A1Transport trailer
Publication Date: 2024.05.29 MANITOU BF SA
  • EP4375139A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4375139A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4375139A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The invention relates to a trailer (1) comprising: - an axle having two wheels spaced in a transverse direction of the trailer, - a chassis carried by the axle, the chassis being provided with a coupling hook disposed at a longitudinal front end of the trailer, - two lateral rails (8,9) spaced in the transverse direction of the trailer and mounted on the chassis so as to respectively straddle said wheels of the trailer, and - a central rail (10) mounted on the chassis, the central rail being located between the two lateral rails, in which each of the two lateral rails extends in a longitudinal direction of the trailer and has a flat portion (82,92) forming a mudguard above said wheel of the trailer and an ascending portion (83,93), in which the central rail has in a longitudinal direction of the trailer: a flat portion (12) and an ascending portion (13).