10t Grabber

This project was about improving design and functionality of the construction machine. Main goals were reduced weight, smaller dimension, greater working capacities and simplified construction more suitable for mass production.

Setting the goals
At the beginning of the project our customer determined main technical specifications. The goal was to design a compact and reliable grabbing machine.

Performance demands
We put main focus on the tasks which grabbing machine is doing. This is lifting and moving various objects in construction works; stones, wood, concrete, metal and other. Everything else was open.

Dimension constrains
Graber was originally designed for 10 ton machine. This determines the weight of the load which could be lifted. Dimensions of the grabber depend on this parameter. If we wanted to increase lifting capacity the weight of the grabber should be as low as possible but strength as high as possible.

Geometry concept
Another goal was to make the grabber as compact as possible. This increases the rigidness and performance. We managed to squeeze the parts of mechanism inside of very compact housing. We designed specially shaped linkage and set geometry which allows the grapples to open as linear as possible.

Design
Even that the design was not number one priority we put a big effort in it. Even when the grabber is a construction machine why should it not look good! At the end it turned out that a nice shape gave an advantage over the competition.

Thinking of production
If the product will be produced in larger quantities we have adapt to customer's production. We managed to decrees total number of parts by 15%. Technology procedures were reduced by 10%. For the customer this means smaller expenses per item produced, better quality and at the end greater profits.

Structural analysis
We performed structural calculations of the parts which are under greater stress. We saw week points and optimized the construction to minimize the weight and keep the rigidness.

Final optimization and testing
After the first prototypes were built we put our design to the test. Tests showed that our design proved as we expected. Smaller changes were applied to the final design. The design proved already very reliable in prototype phase.

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