Control system for a crane

• US 4,815,614 A
• Filed: 06/15/1987
• Issued: 03/28/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/1986
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Loglift OY AB
• Original Assignee: Loglift OY AB
• Inventors: Putkonen, Ari, Sjoholm, Kalevi
• Primary Examiner(s): Basinger, Sherman D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Avila, Stephen P.
• Application Number:
  US07/062,199
• Time in Patent Office: 652 Days
• Field of Search: 212/149-156, 212/146, 212/147, 212/255, 212/261, 340/463, 340/685
• US Class Current: 212/272
• CPC Class Codes: B66C 23/905 electrical

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for controlling the boom of a hydraulic crane, in particular, the crane being provided with at least one load sensor on the basis of which the speed of the boom is controlled so that the greatest permissible speed of the boom increases with decreasing load and correspondingly decreases with increasing load. The drawback of the known systems is that they do not in a satisfactory way consider the dynamic loads the crane is subjected to, wherefore their control properties are unsatisfactory. The problem is eliminated according to the invention so that in order to reduce the dynamic stresses exerted on the crane, the oil flow of the hydraulic actuating means is controlled by directly adjusting the movements of the valves of the actuating means on the basis of a speed instruction of the boom and of a load signal and by filtering such speed instructions which indicate valve movement speeds exceeding a predetermined value.

Claims

1. A system for controlling the boom of a hydraulic crane, in particular, the crane being provided with at least one load sensor on the basis of which the speed of the boom is controlled so that the greatest permissible speed of the boom increases with decreasing load and correspondingly decreases with increasing load, wherein in order to reduce the dynamic stresses exerted on the crane, the oil flow of the hydraulic actuating means is controlled by directly adjusting the speed of the movements of the valves of the actuating means on the basis of a speed instruction (13) of the boom and of a load signal (14) and by filtering such speed instructions which indicate valve movement speeds exceeding a predetermined value.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the hydraulic valves are controlled electrically and that the oil flow controllable by the operator is regulated by limiting the electric control signal on the basis of the load date.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the volume flow of oil is regulated by means of the same valve as used for the general control of the crane.

4. A system according to claim 1, comprising a programmable, preferably digital regulating unit for regulating the respective maximum speed, said regulating unit including a preferably digital filter means for monitoring the movement speeds of control lever and for filtering excessive frequencies.