Curved Monorail Gantry
A utilities supplier required several grey water pumps to be removed for servicing in an industrial estate in Dagenham. This would usually be a fairly standard manufacture of a static monorail gantry, however due to several site restrictions, including bollards designed to stop vehicular access, and a need to get the pumps onto the back of a lorry, meant a curved monorail design was required (1).
Design requirements:
- 1000kg WLL
- 3m height to underside of beam
- Weather protection (2)
- Curved monorail at 90 degrees, radius 2850mm
- Small cantilever to aid loading lorries (3)
- Footplates to avoid pump housing covers
Due to the mechanical nature of a curved monorail of around 5500mm in length, there are significant deflections and torsional loads to the beam when in use. This requires several cross beams to intersect the curved section of the monorail, but to reduce the quantity of steel work and to keep the number of foot plates to a minimum, these cross beam meet on top of the beam, allowing the two additional beams to only use two foot plates instead of four (4).
Weather protection was improved via the inclusion of a dog kennel, and the inclusion of a cantilever section on the end of the beam meant a larger beam section was required throughout to resist deflection, and remain within the LEEAs guidelines.
