Techniplan can design and certify a whole range of
industrial equipment and devices. Utilising the latest
Australian Standard and sophisticated software packages
around.
Finite
Element Analysis
Techniplan has being carrying out Finite Element Analysis on
its own designs and for clients for many years.
Our speciality is the design of plated structures such as elevated
storage bins, tanks and hoppers, frames for large machines,
cranes, stackers and reclaimers, mobile crushing plants, trailers,
vehicle chassis, excavator buckets, bodies for vehicles and
tankers and similar. We also do many certifications of small
items such as lifting lugs, lifting beams, excavator and crane
attachments, boom pivot points and similar.
We use
strand7, an Australian designed FEA package. This package
provides excellent graphics for presentation of results. Of
course, FEA is only a solver of mathematical equations, and
the old adage "garbage in - garbage out" truly applies
in this field. It is the ability and experience of the designer-operator
which produces the results. Selections of boundary conditions,
static and dynamic factors on forces, derivation of actual
loads to be applied, interpretation of stress levels, and
the way features are modelled will be key factors in a successful
design.
Did you
know that Techniplan designs in fibreglass as well as steel.
The design of fibreglass components requires an intimate knowledge
of the product itself. Previously we have managed a large fibreglass moulding
and fabrication shop in Brisbane, where we produced quality
fibreglass pieces including roofs of buses up to 13 metres
long and 2.2 metres wide. Previous fibreglass (GRP) designs
using FEA include a series of light house towers for the Australian
Maritime Safety Authority, A 12 metre long pickling tank,
flotation pontoons for a system of dry docking pleasure craft,
the roofs for an odour control system for 30 metre diameter
sewage treatment clarifiers.
Hydraulic Design
Techniplan
is constantly involved in hydraulic design. Because we build
hydraulically operated equipment, we have expertise in the
design, construction and commissioning of complex systems.
A typical Techniplan machine may have two or three pumps,
several hydraulic motors, and up to fifteen hydraulic cylinder
powered movements. Many of the applications we design lift
personnel and heavy loads.
Techniplan
has an in-house staff which carries out mechanical and structural
design, CAD drafting, PLC programming, and the installation
and commissioning of systems.
Techniplan
is not departmentalised and is does not suffer from the large
uncoordinated divisional approach which impedes many of our
competitors. A Techniplan Engineer will design a system, do
his own purchasing, supervise the tradesmen and technicians,
and commission the system. The job stays with one person from
start to finish. It is not passed from the design department
to the purchasing division to the workshop etc.
3D
Modelling/Animation
Techniplan has the capability of creating or converting 2D
drawings to 3D models using the latest software. We have
licensed copies of Autodesk Inventor with competent staff on
hand to design in 3D.
Accident
Investigation
Kinematic Studies
The
track-laying machine (TLM) consists of a tracklayer that
is trailed by wagons carrying concrete sleepers. A
gantry crane travelling on tracks built into the wagons
picks up a layer of sleepers referred to as a slab and
delivers the slab to the tracklayer for processing. The
gantry crane returns empty to pick up the next slab.
While the gantry is travelling, the wagons are
stationary.
The wagons and the gantry
crane, the subject of this study, was involved in a
fatal incident, where the gantry crane fell off the
wagons and rolled on the ground crushing the driver.
The cause of crane destabilization is understood to be
ascribed to a missing bridge element that continues the
track from one wagon to the adjoining wagon across the
inter-mediate gap.
Failure Analysis
Frangible couplings on
directional signs designed to minimize aircraft impact
damage at Brisbane Airport were failing prematurely due
to windblast from the rear of jet engines. The
frangible couplings pictured below emanate from Thorn
Lighting.
