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New Design Concept for an Excavator Arms by Using Composite Material

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Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to lightweight design an excavator arms, by using a different materials and in particular composite material. Specifically, the research is based on the study of a commercial excavator, by determining its geometry and analyzing the load conditions to which it is exposed. These are determined in relation to either the load diagram of the machine or the possible utilities of the excavator, such as the rotation of the machine. The materials used and implemented in the different analytical and numerical elaborations are classic construction steel S 355 (UNI EN 10025–3), high-resistance steel S 890 (UNI EN 10025–6), aluminum Al 6063 T6 (UNI EN 573–3) and the composite material made by carbon fiber and epoxy resin. The adopted constraints for the design of new arms with different materials, non-conventional for these applications, are numerous. The new solutions must present a safety factor either with respect to the yield tensile strength or to the critical load of buckling greater than or equal to the one determined for the excavator in its original geometrical conformation. Another criterion, which has heavily conditioned the geometry of the arms, was given by the fact that the developed solutions must present a very similar value of the maximum displacement in the different load conditions analyzed. A new geometry for arms made by composite material was developed. It was an elliptical conic section, instead of the classic rectangular section, in order to use the filament winding technological process. As for the adoption of the composite material, we focused on the study and the design of this material as long as the interaction with the extremities (made of aluminum) which are interfaced either with the link between the arms or with the elements of the hydraulic plant which serves for the arms movement. From the results developed, it emerges that the solution developed by adopting composite materials is the one that permits the maximum weight reduction for all arms, about 68.1%, which can be seen as an increment of the maximum mass transportable about 45.5% i.e. passing from 5000 kg to 7277 kg.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia, via Branze, 38, Brescia, Italy

    L. Solazzi, A. Assi & F. Ceresoli

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  1. L. Solazzi
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  2. A. Assi
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  3. F. Ceresoli
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Correspondence to L. Solazzi.

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Solazzi, L., Assi, A. & Ceresoli, F. New Design Concept for an Excavator Arms by Using Composite Material. Appl Compos Mater 25, 601–617 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-017-9638-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-017-9638-0

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