Topologioptimering av fundament till jordbrukstraktorer

Sammanfattning: Ålö is a supplier of products for agricultural tractors. They mainly develop and manufacture front loaders, which traditionally are used to handle hay, but today are employed also in various other application areas. Ålö's products revolve around the front loader, where one of the products is the subframe. The subframes are the mechanical adjustment required for the front loaders to fit different tractors. The design of the subframe can sometimes be difficult to develop since it is limited by the tractor and its attachment points. The Product Integration Department at Ålö wants to investigate a software called Generative Design to facilitate the process of developing new subframes. Three different tractor models with a plate-like geometry are investigated. In addition, a tractor model for which an alternative casting subframe should be developed is investigated. A total of three different methods for the development of subframes are applied. For two of the methods, separate load cases need to be simulated on the two different parts of the subframe. The load cases used for the simulations are obtained by hand calculation. For each method, the time it takes from modelling to optimized design is investigated. In addition, information about other optimization programs is obtained. The result of this project is that the software has too few adjustment possibilities and that the generated design becomes too complex to be successfully used in the development of new subframes with sheet structure. However, an optimized cast design was developed, which provides a weight reduction of 17 kg. The total time of the design process, from the introduction of scanned data to the final subframe concept, is about six hours. Two topology optimization programs are considered better suited for the project and a further study is recommended to explore the software Altaire Inspire.