Crane she.av.

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design prlnclp s

Keywords
Good design principles- economic design- avoiding failures. Principles: short force
paths - uniform strength - balanced forces - anticipating deformations. Design
optimisation and choice.

3.1 Objectives

This is an exercise in not developing bad habits. It is about good design principles.
Design is multidisciplinary, involving theories and rules from the worlds of
thermodynamics, fluids, statics, dynamics and others. Some basic principles however
are very common, appearing in most mechanical designs, whatever their particular
discipline 'mix' or specialism. The good thing is that these principles are s i m p l e -
they are also worth learning, not because they will guarantee you a good design but
because of the way in which they can help you avoid producing very bad ones.

3.2 The crane sheave hanger

Cranes use a system of pulley mechanisms to help lift the load. The pulleys may be
single or ganged depending on the application. Pulleys are locatedwithin a fabricated
steel s h e a v e - an arrangement which holds the pulley spindles (or 'pins') so that the
pulleys can revolve. The simple design shown in Fig. 3.1 uses a 'hanger-type' sheave
- t h i s is common on small utility cranes up to a safe working load (SWL) of 5
tonnes. The hanger is bent from low carbon steel sheet and fits over a machined pin
which is supported by two frame plates.
This design looks straightforward enough. We will now look at five basic design
principles:

9economic functions;
9force transmission;
9force balance;
9uniform strength;
9matched deformations.

Try to follow the descriptions of these five design principles. It is the idea that it is
important- they are outlined in general engineering terms, for similar applications,
but not in the context of the crane sheave hanger (that is your job).