Fatigue Damage and New Design of Gantry Crane Equalizer Beam
DS 30: Proceedings of DESIGN 2002, the 7th International Design Conference, Dubrovnik
Year: 2002
Editor: Marjanovic D.
Author: Krstulovic, A.; Matic, T.
Section: Technical systems
Page(s): 1063-1066
Abstract
During regularly inspection of gantry cranes on equalizer beams (part of a crane used to distribute the load to the wheels) a numerous cracks in regions of weldments was observed. Repair by simple welding of cracks was not successful, therefore decision for production of new designed equalizer beams was made. Finite Element Analysis was used to find out global stress distribution, the local stress concentration at critical points of new designed equalizer beam as well as former one. That analysis confirmed hypothesis of inappropriate design of former equalizer beams. Production, assembly and testing of equalizer beams under QA and QC have been in brief described.
Keywords: FEM, stress concentration, QA/QC