Analysis of welded reinforcements on a boom mower : A structural and modal analysis of reinforcement properties on a industrial boom mower

Sammanfattning: Road safety is a complicated issue that affects most world economies due to its negative socioeconomic impact. Road safety programs include different programs that cover different areas for minimizing the effects of these impacts. One of these programs focuses road safety against invasion of wildlife into traffic roads. Most economies that heavily include these particular programs, such as Sweden, rely on specific machinery and techniques for clearing road shoulders that allows driver to foresee any possible danger or road invasion in good time. The most common piece of machinery used for covering this type of activity is known as a boom mower. Boom mowers can be pictured as giant lawnmowers that are attached into a long boom crane from wheel loaders or excavators, so they can clear invading vegetation from the road shoulders. Boom mowers suffer from heavy wear due to their dimensions, weight and operating speed which it requires companies to pay extra attention to their construction and choice of materials. Cranab Slagkraft is a Swedish company that has been specialized for providing high quality boom mowers for the last 30 yearsfor clearing vegetation on the Swedish roads. But, despite their higher quality products, these boo mowers are often expensive and complicated to manufacture. For this reason, Cranab has requested a study to minimize the manufacturing burden in order to simplify its production and diminish cost. This research study focuses on the latest components addition into the boom mower construction to assess their performance. For this research, the researcher will put to test the reinforcements of the boom mower’s model SH150 and see what their performance against harmonic vibrations and structural strength against local stresses are. The research follows two complementary analysis. First, a modal analysis on the boom mower’s main structure for evaluating resonance levels at an operating frequency. Second, a structural analysis with idealized conditions at operating speed to determine construction stress resilience. The results in this research reveals that the modal analysis rejects the viability of one group of reinforcements and confirms the implications of the other one. Also, the results reveal that the complicated geometry requires advanced software for providing more conclusive results. In addition, the boom mower’s own geometry and choice of material might play a role in adjusting the harmonic resonance and adjusting the boom mower’s mechanical properties. The latter conclusion should be considered as a theme of study for future research in this same field.