Research and Application of Portal Crane's Luffing Mechanism Design Based on Modern Design Method

At present, there are some new research ideas in the design of luffing mechanism of portal crane, such as genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm. The development of design software adopts Visual C++ or Visual Basic, MATLAB and other tools. These methods are advanced but inefficient because extra time and cost are required. This paper proposes a modern design method to complete the optimization of the four-bar luffing mechanism in the portal crane, which can simplify the calculation and improve the efficiency. The motion track description and mechanical properties of the four-bar luffing mechanism are obtained by the geometric analysis and the load analysis. The luffing curves, which can be re-drawn by modifying the initial parameters, are given to verify the optimized results. Results demonstrate that the modern design method can accomplish the optimal design effectively without extra time and cost, and this finding will be provided as the design guidance for the luffing mechanism.