Study on Design of Top Shackle used in Cage Suspension Gear in Mines – FEA Approach
Summary
Shackles are used in coupling devices in different applications such as tractor trollies, oil exploration, railways, and mining. They are used to assemble cages/skips with mine cage suspension gear (CSG) through links/chains to transport man, material, and machines. This paper presents the design verification and crack distribution of top shackles at various statically load combinations found during quality assessment followed by FEA analysis. This paper also deals with the behavior of von Mises (equivalent) stress, von Mises (equivalent) strain, safety factors, and damages (cracks) developed for top shackles under static load. This study shows that it satisfies Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS) norms for the design of top shackles used in cage suspension gear.