Optimisation of the transfer carriage structure

Abstract

This work has been carried out in collaboration with DREVER International S.A. located in Liège. Drever International is a market leader for continuous annealing furnaces and galvanizing plants for steel and stainless steel strip. In the heat treatment of strips (automotive qualities), it is necessary to use a transfer carriage in order to translate an induction furnace (with a weight of about 80 tons). Currently, this carriage has several overhangs. It consists of girder beams and comprises a system to compensate torsion efforts. The design of this equipment is guided by the respect of deflection criteria.

The aim of this thesis is to improve the structural system and to optimize the transfer carriage structure. After studying the current solution, eight new solutions are proposed at the pre-design stage. All of them are studied parametrically analyzing their advantages and disadvantages what leads to the selection of the solution for the detailed design. The selected solution is composed of planar trusses made of hollow sections instead of built-up box girders used in the initial solution. Two variants of the selected solution are studied in detail. As a result, both variants of the selected solution ensure considerable material savings compared to the current solution, as well as some simplifications related to the manufacturing of the structure.