About this project
A large manufacturer was faced with a seemingly unsolvable problem. The existing lifting equipment was insufficient to reach the maximum capacity of the production process. Vicoma was called in to come up with a practical and feasible solution.
Project: insufficient use of containers for moving raw materials
Currently the manufacturer uses an internal transport system in which raw materials are moved by bins. As the crane’s lifting load is insufficient, the entire contents of the bins cannot be used. Due to the large number of bins (60), replacing the bins is not a realistic option.
Vicoma’s role: finite element method demonstrates over-dimensioning
Vicoma calculated the strength of the structure using the finite element method (EEM). In the past these calculations were done by hand, but modern software provides more reliable results. It showed that the containers were over-dimensioned. Because the wall thickness of the existing bins could not be adjusted, Vicoma advised making holes in the shields. For future containers, even more weight reduction could be achieved by reducing the wall thickness accordingly.
Result: increased production capacity due to more useful hoisting load
The weight reduction of the buckets achieved in this way could be translated into more useful hoisting loads. The production capacity of our client was thus substantially increased The above project is deliberately presented in abstract form due to sensitive customer information. However, weight reduction by (re)accurately calculating on the basis of EEM calculations can result in savings for many clients in several ways.
