Development of aluminum alloy ROPS for front loaders

Relevance. Currently, cabs with integrated rollover protection devices (roll over protective structure; ROPS) and protection against falling objects (falling-object protective structure; FOPS) are widely used for frontend loaders. If the design of FOPS is not affected by the mass parameters of the machine, then ROPS significantly depends on them. For a loader with ROPS, the cab is a difficult and expensive part. One of the ways to reduce the cost of its production is the unification of units for a standard-sized range of loaders. But then the ROPS design should be done for the loader model with the largest mass. However, this approach leads to an increase in the metal consumption and cost of loaders with a lower load capacity. As a result, the energy efficiency of the machine decreases.

A promising direction for improving energy efficiency is to reduce the weight of cabins through the use of aluminum alloys, because they have a high specific strength relative to steel. The objects of the study are wheeled front loaders with a gross weight of 10, 15 and 30 tons. The subject of the study is the application of computational methods based on the finite element method in the design of cabins made of aluminum alloys.

The purpose of the study is to develop a methodology for designing an aluminum alloy cabin frame, which will allow obtaining a cabin of lower weight and increased manufacturability compared to analogues.

Methodology and methods. The article presents the developed finite element models of structurally similar cabin samples in a static formulation, taking into account geometric and physical nonlinearities.

Results and scientific novelty. The paper presents a method for selecting the main design parameters of an aluminum alloy cabin.

Practical significance. The results obtained can be used to create cabs of front-end loaders.

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