Trolley for One Ton Load

The project requirement is to load one ton of metal weights (20kg x 50 pieces) onto a movable platform. The common heavy duty trolleys have a maximum loading of 300kg. The price of such a trolley is around $150, and it costs twice as much for a 500kg rated one.

We call it Super Heavy Duty Trolley because it is designed for more than 1-ton load, far surpassing “Heavy Duty”. What’s more, the cost will not be exorbitant and it is purpose built.

The Build

Overview

Steel will be the best material for the structure of the trolley. It is strong and can be easily joint by welding. After checking with our local metal supplier, we have decided to use 50mm x 50mm x 2.3mm thick steel hollow sections and weld it into a frame structure. Four castor wheels will be mounted on the bottom, and lastly a piece if plywood will be mounted on top.

Stress Analysis

We used CAD to create the 3D model of the frame to make use of the finite element analysis to check for the highest stress point:

We have intentionally specified 1000kg uniform load to load on the metal frame only. The highest stress point is at the corner at around 36MPa. The yield strength of structural steel is around 250MPa, which means we have a Safety Factor of more than 6. That is good enough, considering that the plywood top will further relieve the stress exerted onto the frame.

Castor Wheels

The castor wheels we used are rated at 2-tons static load and 1-ton dynamic load as recommended by our local supplier. We opted for 2 swivel and 2 fixed castor wheels instead of 4 swivel ones as it will be easier to manoeuvre.

The Process

1. Weld and grind the welds of the steel frame structure

2. Fit castor wheels and remove for spray painting

3. Spray paint and assemble the wooden platform

Project completed, another happy customer.