Coffee Time Challenge

The Challenge: What a mover!

Unless you are Geoff Capes, moving heavy rolls of paper, railway wagons or aircraft by hand is probably unthinkable.

Usually, heavy rolls of film, paper or cables require some kind of heavy duty machinery to move them wherever they need to go. These industrial rolls can weigh tons, yet all need to be maneuvered around warehouses.

This is usually done by fork lift, or by groups of people all pushing the roll, putting their backs in to it, and straining away. This is obviously far from ideal as it can cause back problems, especially in the long term, and has potential dangers if it rolls away out of control.

And then there are items that are just too heavy; railway carriages, trucks, and even aircraft for example. Take a maintenance depot that deals with trains and trams. Moving these colossal masses, sometimes over 100tons, usually requires the driver. But often engineers need to check wheel integrity, by rolling or lifting up the trains. Drivers are not always around, lifting equipment is large and expensive, and powered trains not always available to move carriages.

Aircraft, of a small to medium size, are also limited in maneuverability once they are parked and the pilot has gone to the bar. Yet maintenance engineers might need to move the aircraft to a hanger. While machines exist to move these they are again generally large, bulky and heavy.

The Challenge:

The challenge this month is to come up with a handheld device which can be used to roll anything from rolls of paper to trains. The device should require no real physical effort from the user and be able to shift up to 100tons. It can be powered by any means, but should not be overly complicated. An air hose, hydraulic line or electrical cable is probably going to be your best bet.

This should be a classic problem for mechanical engineers, and first principles can probably guide you most of the way, certainly in terms of the kinds of forces you are dealing with. The device should also be small and light enough that it can be carried around, being highly portable and only needing to be connected to a power source.

High power density is obviously a must have, and for particularly heavy items such as trains, additional methods of finding grip can be added to the design. The solution can involve using high ratio gearing, a clutch system, driven by anything from pedal power to an electric motor. However, strain on an electric motor could cause it to overheat and prematurely fail, so it might not be the ideal solution after all.

Author
Paul Fanning

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