As one of the most important structural parts of concrete pumps, the lifetime of the boom directly determines the lifetime of the concrete pump.
The cost of repair and replacement of the boom is very high. If it is during the warranty period, of course, the pump manufacturer will bear the replacement cost. However, this may lead to customer complaints, or directly affect the pump manufacturer’s brand, this loss is incalculable. Therefore, how to measure the technical strength of a pump manufacturer? Look at the quality and stability of its boom. The boom is also the focus of research and development of major pump manufacturers to extend its service life and creating more value for customers.
Causes of boom cracks
For now, the main problem with the concrete pump booms is the cracking. As a structural unit, this problem is also unavoidable. First of all, the weight of the boom itself is very heavy, and after unfolding, it must be subjected to deformation forces from the direction of gravity. Most of the booms are made of steel, which will eventually crack due to fatigue deformation of the material.
At the same time, when the concrete pump is working, pushing the piston to pump concrete through the main cylinder will also produce a strong impact force on the boom. This part of the impact force is called the dynamic load and will also be applied to the load on the arm. The material will also fatigue crack due to this impact force.
There is also a deformation or cracking of the boom due to the impact of external objects. The main reason may be that the operator did not notice the environment around the construction site when operating the boom, and did not control the exact position of the boom. The frame collides with other objects, causing the boom to break.
Nowadays, the concrete pump boom adopts a box-shaped beam structure, which is welded by four steel plates. After the boom is unfolded, the force in the vertical direction is the largest. If, at this time, an external force hits the horizontal direction of the boom, it is easy to cause the boom to break.
Prevent boom breakage and extend the boom’s lifetime
Most customers don’t pay attention to the daily inspection and maintenance of the boom. The inspection is to discover the potential problems of the boom. For example, the inspection found that the boom has cracks even very small cracks. In this case, the concrete pump should stop working for inspection. At the same time, the inspection of the boom cylinders must also be carried out together. Check if the boom cylinder leaks oil, and this situation is most likely to cause the boom cylinder to leak out, which will eventually cause the boom drops when it is working. In some cases, serious accidents may happen.
The maintenance of the boom is mainly to add grease to the pin of the joint to extend the service life of the wear parts. If you hear the abnormal sound of the boom in the process of unfolding the boom, it is most likely caused by the lack of lubrication of the pin. Therefore, daily inspection and maintenance are very important.
Extending the boom’s lifetime is a primary task for the pump manufacturer.
One solution is to use high-strength materials. And currently, high-strength steel has been widely used in pump booms. Compared to ordinary steel, high-strength steel is more sensitive to defects and has worse fatigue resistance.
The second solution is to optimize the design of the boom so that the boom can be more lightweight and reduce unnecessary load after reaching its working strength.
The third is to carry out a large number of experiments, applying an extreme external force to the boom to test how long it will last under the limit working condition. And through continuous optimization design, the ultimate pressure resistance of the boom is enhanced.
What are the advantages of ZOOMLION-CIFA carbon-fiber boom?
In recent years, ZOOMLION has been promoting more and more carbon-fiber boom technology. Some people still don’t know carbon fiber. Why is it special?
First of all, carbon fiber is not a high tech now, and there are many practical applications. For example, in some luxurious cars, carbon fiber is used in large quantities to reduce its weight.
The earliest use of carbon fiber boom technology was the Italian concrete machinery manufacturer CIFA, but it was later acquired by ZOOMLION. It’s the first time to combine carbon-fiber material with a concrete pump together.
Carbon fiber has excellent properties such as high-temperature resistance, heat conduction, corrosion resistance, and can be processed into any shape to cover some cover members or structural parts which need to be reinforced. However, the disadvantages of carbon fiber are also obvious: poor shear resistance, and it is easy to break when subjected to an external force. This is why some sports cars, after a collision, the body sheet metal broke into pieces.
ZOOMLION uses carbon fiber booms, mainly from the perspective of lightweight. It is also to reduce the load intensity of the boom during work and improve the service life of the boom. After combining the steel material and the carbon fiber material, the boom has the advantages of two materials, which can achieve the specified strength and reduce the weight of the boom by 25%. This also provides technical support for the construction of long-boom pump trucks. On the ZOOMLION 101-meter concrete pump, there are four arms were made of carbon fiber boom material. Therefore, compared with the traditional steel boom, the carbon fiber boom has obvious advantages.
Of course, you’ll also need to pay more for this fancy technology.
Edited by Hello-Parts.com
