Technical Paper
Life Prediction of a Refuse Truck Cab for Automatic Side Loading operation using Inertia Relief
2013-05-13
2013-01-2011
Refuse Trucks are used to pick up garbage from houses. These trucks have huge robotic arms connected to the frame which are operated by hydraulic mechanism operated by the driver sitting inside the cab of the truck. The operator of the truck controls the robotic arm using a lever. Once the truck is positioned aside the garbage can, the operator moves the robotic arm outwards, grabs hold of the garbage can, picks up the garbage can and dumps the garbage into the truck. During this operation, the frame articulates and moves due to the frame suspension causing the cab to move along with the frame. This operation is performed about 1000 times a day, 5days a week for 12 years which could result in some amount of damage to the cab over its life. Since the time rate of application of the forces during the Automatic Side Loading operation is small compared to the lowest flexible mode of the cab, modal amplification is considered unlikely.