Research On Modular System For Lightweight Overhead Crane Based On KBE

Most of overhead cranes are designed by traditional design method which appropriately modifies a number of size parameters and then makes the checking calculation on the basis of referring to the existing drawing within the enterprise. The method is lack of effective organization of design knowledge leading to lots of repetitive work and as results, the design cycle becomes longer and the cost of design increases. Cranes designed have a larger safety factor which results in material waste and it is difficult to meet the customer’s personalization and diversity requirements.In order to deal with the fierce market competition, the design of overhead cranes is in an urgent need to use the new design concepts to shorten product development cycle, reduce product costs and optimize product performance.With the financial support of the National Science and Technology support plan project "universal bridge crane lightweight design technology and application"(project number:2011BAF11B02), the lightweight technology of overhead crane is researched in the paper. Meanwhile knowledge based engineering, computer aided design and modular design technology are also introduced into the overhead crane design and the modular system of lightweight overhead crane based on KBE is established. Related knowledge and experience of crane design are applied to the modular design of the bridge crane, with a combination of three-dimensional modeling and finite element analysis techniques to achieve the overhead crane design. The article is mainly researched from the following aspects:(1) The overhead crane is compartmentalized into modules base on function principle and new products are assembled with existing modules or a small amount of modules designed and manufactured to meet customers’requirements.(2) Firstly it is researched that how to put knowledge based engineering into application in overhead cranes. And then the design and calculation knowledge of bridge structure is summed up to build a knowledge base. At last calculation program of bridge structure is written to reuse existing design experience and knowledge.(3) The metal structure lightweight goal of overhead crane is assigned and lightweight technical solutions of main girder are formulated. The finite element analysis software ANSYS is used to optimize the design of the main girder and end girder. The optimized type of main girder is welding off-track box-shaped beam. Under the condition meeting the requirements of static and stability analysis, nine parameters affecting the weight of main girder are optimized, with its own weight as optimization objective and stiffness, strength, overall stability and local stability as constraints. Taking the main girder and end girder of one type of overhead crane as an example, the optimization results are analyzed.(4) The integrated software VS.NET is used as the system development platform, integrating both3D modeling software SolidWorks and the finite element analysis software ANSYS and then modular system for lightweight overhead crane based on KBE is established, which is made up of overall scheme design system, lightweight design system and the moduar design system. Finally, bridge frame is taken as an example to demonstrate the system movement process.Modular system of lightweight overhead crane based on KBE established in this article is widely used in a company and the results show that the system is able to shorten the time of supplying products and improve the company’s competitiveness in the market.