Tailor welded panel beam for construction machine and method of manufacturing

摘要

A beam [ 44 ] for use in construction equipment is a modular design made from tailor welded panels. It includes a top panel [ 50 ], a bottom panel [ 60 ] and two side panels [ 70 , 80 ] connected together into a body, with two top corners [ 57 , 58 ] and two bottom corners [ 76 , 86 ]. At least one of the panels is made from at least two pieces of material [e.g. 54 , 53 , 52 or 72 , 73 , 74 ] such as steel welded together with the weld running the length of the beam. The weld between pieces of steel can either be parallel to the longitudinal axis of the beam, or the pieces can be tapered and thus the weld will be at an angle diverging from a line parallel to the longitudinal axis of the beam. The two pieces of material have a different compressive strength per unit of length in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the beam. In some embodiments the top panel is welded to the two side panels to form the two top corners of the beam; and the bottom panel is welded to the two side panels to form the two bottom corners of the beam. A boom section for use in making a telescoping boom [ 22 ] for a crane [ 10 ] includes at least a first panel member and a second panel member, at least the second panel member has at least two pieces of steel welded together, with the weld running the length of the boom section. The two pieces of steel have a different strength per unit of length transverse to the axis. The two panel members are welded together along a joint that runs parallel to the longitudinal axis of the section to form the boom section.