Hybrid lightweight construction & diversity in emergency and rescue services

Lightweight Design of Hydraulic Rescue Scissor.

 

Betreuer:

  1. Supervisor:                  Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Thomas Tröster
  2. Supervisor:                  Prof. Dr. Ilona Horwath
  3. Practice partner:         N.N.
  4. Industry partner:   N.N.

Motivation

Today, material properties of hydraulic rescue scissors have high properties; however, the improving performance of materials used in vehicles can result in significant problems in the case of an accident. Research studies show that the most of the rescue operation problems in the case of an accident occur during patient access. Therefore, an approach to solve this problem is to create a new lightweight scissor design manufactured by new production technologies to rescue patients as much as fast. Thus, firefighters can effectively use these strength and lightweight rescue tools to access the patients in a short time.

Aims

In the case of accident, the vehicle is damaged in the way that people can be stuck inside. The possibility of fire or explosion may endanger them. The continuous development of materials used in modern vehicles necessitates new approaches to safe and fast rescue of people from modern vehicles. The existing high-performance rescue cutting tools have weigh more than 20 kg. In addition, the cutting tools can only be used by one person during rescue operation. The total permissible weight for  rescue cutting equipment is limited to 25 kg, thus avoiding the production of bigger equipment to achieve higher cutting forces. One approach to ensure the fast rescue of victims of an accident may be that the cutting tool used is lightweight. Therefore, the aim of the study is to create a new design of additively manufactured rescue scissor tools and to overcome the limits of traditional manufactured components. Thus, a timesaving rescue and medical care operations of patients can be achieved.

Methods/Materials

The more complex the design of the parts, the more advantageous it is to use additively manufacturing (AM) technology. The product quality is better, and the mechanical load performance can be compared with the traditional methods. Thus, AM method is very suitable for producing an equipment with strength and lightweight design. In addition, the materials of steels in general and in automotive engineering in particular will be discussed. This includes on the one hand the physical principles and influencing factors of AM method. On the other hand, potentially suitable cutting materials are analysed and determined. The raw powder materials that meet the mechanical properties required by cutting equipment are selected. The properties of the material are tested and the numerically verified material properties are used as input in the simulation. Stress analysis is investigated. The cutting concept to be developed is then determined according to the results of topology optimization studies.