Mastering structural loads up-front and improving driving comfort
Telescopic handlers are on- and off-road capable universal vehicles for lifting and transporting loads and bulk material up to a height of 10 meters. They have become increasingly important in the agricultural and construction-related industries where they are used for bulk material handling both on and off the road to operate over long distances. Telescopic handlers run on air tires and have a telescopic boom to which various equipment can be attached, such as lifting forks or buckets. As the vehicle has neither any wheel suspension nor shock absorbers, the tires alone need to deal with uneven ground to dampen possible vehicle vibrations. Driving on bumpy tracks, however, may cause vibrations around 3 Hz which can reduce driving comfort and increase material fatigue. In order to avoid time-consuming and costly test series during ever shorter innovation cycles, engineers need to understand a vehicle’s dynamic behavior, find out which aspects lead to such pitching and lifting motions and how to avoid the resulting vibrations already at the early stages of the product development process. Only then they can master structural loads up-front and improve the driving comfort for the operator.