Designing for impact
Designing for impact
(OP)
Trying to design a mechanism to stop a moving weighted box that is on a trailer. Box weighs 2000kg and trailer is moving at speeds upto 20mph and will stop suddenly. Problem is there is nothing to stop the box flying into the front of the truck. Looking to design a couple of latches to stop the box from hitting the truck when suddenly stopping.
What do i need to take into consideration? Obviously I can work out the force of the impact on the box. How do i go about designing a latch?
Thanks
What do i need to take into consideration? Obviously I can work out the force of the impact on the box. How do i go about designing a latch?
Thanks





RE: Designing for impact
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RE: Designing for impact
Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."
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RE: Designing for impact
There are a lot of commercial latches available that can handle loads well in excess of this. A google of tiedown latches will give you some ideas.
But why reinvent the wheel?
RE: Designing for impact
Some sleds I've seen simply use sloped ramps; any forward movement when the entire rig stops allows the weight box to rise and then fall back to the rearward constraint. The better designs I've seen positively constrain and control the box movement both fore and aft.
Acceleration forces on the moveable box are likely to be larger in the rearward direction than in the forward direction; the sled is pulled hard at the start but tends to be slowed by increasing friction rather than active braking, so a mechanism strong enough to accelerate the box forward should be adequately strong to also control the movement of the box during the stopping phase if the postioning mechanism wraps around the sled and constrains movement in both directions.
If this is indeed what you are trying to accomplish, post a sketch and we'll comment from there.