DETERMINING STRESSES IN THE METALLIC STRUCTURE OF AN OVERHEAD CRANE WHEN USING RUNNING WHEELS OF THE NEW DESIGN

Abstract

This paper proposes a method to experimentally study the stressed state of the metallic structure of an overhead crane when using running wheels of different designs. The study employed a functioning electric, supporting, double-girder overhead crane with a capacity of 5 tons and a run of 22.5 m. Strain gauges assembled in a semi-bridge circuit and connected to the analog-digital converter Zetlab210 (Russia) were used to determine the girder deformations at the time of hoisting and moving cargoes of different masses. The cargo was lifted and displaced under the same conditions, on the regular wheels of a cargo trolley and the wheels with an elastic rubber insert. The girder deformation diagrams were constructed. The subsequent recalculation produced the stressed state’s dependences at each point of cargo movement when using both regular wheels and the wheels with an elastic rubber insert. Also established were the dependences and the duration of oscillations that occur over the cycle of cargo lifting and moving. The experimental study cycle included cargo lifting in the far-left position by a trolley, moving the cargo to the far-right position, and returning the trolley with the cargo to its original position. It should be noted that the application of a new, modernized design of the running wheels of a cargo trolley with an elastic rubber insert effectively dampenthe oscillations in the metallic structure of the crane. The experimental study’s results helped establish an 18 % reduction in stresses in the girder of the overhead crane, as well as a decrease in peak vibrations, by 20 seconds, at the same cycles of cargo hoisting and moving. In addition, using wheels with an elastic rubber insert reduces the period of oscillation damping at the end of the cycle of cargo movement, by at least 30 %.