Adjustable Beam Clamp 3

[shinerttu]

Hello All, thank you for viewing my post.

I am a new (entry level) engineer and I have my second assignment which I have no clue on how to approach. I have been asked to design an adustable beam clamp for 3-tons to fit a beam with a flange 12" wide and a flange thickness of 1.5". All I have to work with is what a previously designed beam clamp looks like. I KNOW they sell these but my company tends to make everything in house and I just need some direction. Does anyone have an example or can someone get me started in the right path? I started by assuming some dimensions and calculating shear and moment diagrams for the lower arm, the center vertical member, and upper arm...thats about it.

 

[dhengr]

Despite its appearance and that darn square notch end, this problem is actually more like (actually is) the design of a curved beam, bending in plane of the curve, or the design of a funny lookin hook. And, you end up with two opposing hooks pinned at their chain link loop/hole, and you get to the device that TLHS showed. There might be two hook plates on each side of the large beam, to achieve some symmetry, on one side are two hook plates spaced at 2.5" apart; one the other side are two identical hook plates spaced 1.75" apart. They lap under the beam web, at a large pin hole, which pins the four plates together and supports the rigging fitting btwn. the two 1.75" inner plates. Then you need some means of locking this onto the beam flange, so it can’t spread open and off the flange. Thus, TLHS’s device.


I agree with BA’s explanation, I was trying to say the same thing. Any movement that friction couldn’t resist would drive the top leg into the web/flg. fillet, not a failure mechanism. An alternative to his two locking (moment providing) bolts in the two outer holes, would be the following, although somewhat Rube Goldbergish. At the outer ends of the two bot. legs, and on their top edge, weld an angle shape with the vert. leg down and 1"+ away from the plate. This angle and its vert. leg would hook over the other (lapping) lower leg, near the vert. leg (that darn sq. notch end). Then when the shackle pin was installed the two bot. legs would be locked together much a BA’s two bolts would do.

 

[BAretired]

If you are going to design an adjustable beam clamp, why not pattern it after the one shown by TLHS? That is a much better concept than the one you are attempting to model.

Better still, why not simply buy one that fits your requirements at a cost of about $400?


BA

 

[rb1957]

as above, you can't just create an external moment to balance your free body; it has to be real.

looking at your free body, add the I-beam flange, then imagine what your C-clamp will do under the loads/reactions considered. ie 'cause of the mis-alignment of the two pts there's a couple ... that'll cause the clamp to do what ? if it does this, what happens next ? the answer is, i think, that the clamp plate bears against the top surface of the I-beam flange, creating a third load on the clamp, allowing you to create a body in equilibrium.



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