Failures of construction equipment, construction machine

Abstract

Construction equipment and accessories are a vital part of any structural engineering works or infrastructural projects. Massive equipment and construction vehicles are involved in excavation and digging of huge quantities of earth, compacting and leveling, transfer of materials and heavy loads, placement of construction materials, and construction process. Sudden failure of these equipment and accessories is a serious concern as it causes damage of properties, increase in cost, delay in project, production loss, and even fatality in some cases. Therefore, root-cause analysis of these failures is of utmost importance to prevent their recurrence. These failures could be a result of inadequate design, faulty material and manufacturing, service abuse, poor equipment maintenance, or unskilled operations.

Brief introduction

Volvo CE is a construction equipment producer which is a part of Volvo Group with approximately 14,000 employees operating 15 production factories globally.

14.4.2 Strategy approach to energy management

Volvo Group has had Environmental Care as one of its core values since 1972. To challenge themselves, Volvo Group reached an agreement with World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) to enter their Climate Savers program, primarily focusing on the fuel consumption of the products. This agreement was later expanded to include further aspects such as production factory energy efficiency. Based on this, Volvo CE updated its Environmental Care focus to take a broader energy management approach using Lean energy thinking.

The priority prior to this was to reduce CO2 emissions from the factories. The new strategy was turned around to first focus on energy conservation. This was followed by improved energy efficiency and then finally renewable energy as seen in Fig. 14.7.

Construction equipment

Manufacturer warranties are desirable against inefficient performance of construction equipment. The need for specialized equipment may be considered for improved performance. Rapid construction is related to modern construction equipment. Examples include the following:

Examples include the following:

Timely availability of modern construction equipment with an experienced erection team will be necessary. Different erection equipment is required for girders, box beams, trusses, arches, and cable-stayed and suspension cable bridges.

An erection contractor must be equipped with the following:

Accessories include separate foundations, crane mats, temporary bents, hydraulic jacks, and temporary pier brackets.

Equipment condition evaluation

To strengthen the management of shield machine and auxiliary construction equipment, ensure the construction equipment in good technical condition and safe operation, and ensure effective execution of good maintenance work, a construction equipment status assessment team should be set up to evaluate the construction equipment status every month. Before the completion of excavation work, a full evaluation shall be performed on shield machine and auxiliary construction equipment, segment modules, and other equipment. The evaluation work shall normally be performed when there are three rings to be completed. It aims at recording operation technical parameters of the shield machine. Meanwhile, oil and water tests shall be carried out as well. A final evaluation report shall conclude with the condition of the shield machine and which reactions to be taken for the problems in the evaluation report.

The regular evaluation during shield machine tunnelling shall be organized by jobsite project department. Project department personnel, representatives from the jobsite, and relevant management teams shall attend. The evaluation on the shield machine before full completion of excavation shall be organized by the shield machine management department and supported by the jobsite project department and other departments. The organizer shall also define the evaluation scope, time, and execution related works, as well as to define the responsibilities and rights for the evaluation team members. A full evaluation report shall be submitted after evaluation. The user of the machine shall make the repair plan according to the evaluation report. The shield machine management department is responsible to supervise that repair work of the user.