DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF STAIR

CLIMBING HAND CART

B Tech
Mini Project report
Done by

 NISHAD K (REG NO: ETAKEME067)

 NITHIN MADHAVAN P (REG NO: ETAKEME068)
 NITISH NANDAKUMAR (REG NO: ETAKEME069)
 NIYAS P (REG NO: ETAKEME070)
 P RISHIKESH MENON (REG NO: ETAKEME076)

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Government Engineering College
Thrissur-680 009
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 1
 Government Engineering College, Thrissur
Department of Mechanical Engineering

CERTIFICATE

Certified that this is a bonafide record of the Mini Project Work titled

DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF STAIR

CLIMBING HAND CART

Done by

 NISHAD K (REG NO: ETAKEME067)

 NITHIN MADHAVAN P (REG NO: ETAKEME068)
 NITISH NANDAKUMAR (REG NO: ETAKEME069)
 NIYAS P (REG NO: ETAKEME070)
 P RISHIKESH MENON (REG NO: ETAKEME076)

of third year B Tech Mechanical Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of
Bachelor of Technology Degree in Mechanical Engineering under the University of Calicut during the year
2013.

Asst. Prof. P A ABDUL SAMAD Prof. K VARUGHESE JOB

Thesis Guide Head of the Department.

THRISSUR
DATE

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 2

 ABSTRACT

The project aims to bring forward a means to transport heavy objects over stairs. The need of

such a system is obvious from the day-to-day requirements of our society. Devices such as hand

trucks are used to relieve the stress of lifting while on flat ground; however, these devices

usually fail when it becomes necessary to negotiate a short flight of stairs. In the light of this, the

project attempts to design a stair climbing hand cart which can carry heavy objects up the stairs

with less effort compared to carrying them manually. It also endeavors to study the commercial

viability and importance of such a product. Several designs were conceived that would allow a

non-industrial hand truck to travel over stairs, curbs, or uneven terrain while putting minimal

strain on the user. One strategy, a three-wheel rotating system, was selected for development and

several solid models were created and a prototype was constructed. The finished prototype was

tested with a payload of approximately 35 kg, and it was determined that the hand truck design is

a viable option for a stair-climbing consumer product.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 3

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our endeavour stands incomplete without dedicating our gratitude to everyone who has

contributed a lot to the successful completion of our project work. First of all, we offer our

thanks to our parents for their blessings. We're indebted to the God Almighty for blessing us with

His grace & taking our endeavour to a successful culmination. We're very much grateful to Dr.

K Vijayakumar, Principal, Govt. Engg. College, for his able support all along. We specially

acknowledge Prof K Varughese Job, HOD, Mechanical Engineering Department and our

project guide Shri P A Abdul Samad , Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Department for their able guidance given to us and steering us towards the successful

completion of this project. We finally, thank our friends and all our well-wishers who had

supported us directly and indirectly during our project work.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 4

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapters Page No.

1. Introduction and background 7

2. Analysis of basic stair ascension 8

3. The stair climbing hand cart---A new concept 10

4. Design objectives 11

5. The tri-star wheel design 13

6. Design of stair-climbing hand cart 15

7. Analysis of stair-climbing hand cart 19

8. Results 25

9. Conclusion 26

10. Discussions and recommendations 27

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 5

 LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. No. Description Page No.

2.1 Force diagram of a wheel driving over a stair 9

5.1 Tri-star wheel arrangement 14

6.1 2-d CAD drawing of the design of hand cart 15

6.2 3-d drawing of the basic model of stair lift 16

6.3 Modified wheel frame 17

6.4 Orthographic view of wheel and shaft arrangement 18

7.1 Forces acting on the system 19

7.2 Maximum load determination 21

7.3 Horizontal load and bending moment diagrams 22

7.4 Vertical load and bending moment diagrams 23

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 6

 CHAPTER – 1

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Lifting heavy objects to upper stories or lifting patients to upper levels from the ground are not

painless jobs, especially where there are no lifting facilities (elevator, conveyer, etc). Moreover,

most of the buildings are structurally congested and do not have elevators or escalators. The

project introduces a new option for the transportation of loads over the stairs. The stair climbing

hand cart can play an important role in those areas to lift loads over a short height.

The mechanical design process by definition defines a device that will carry out a specified task

when appropriate inputs are given. In reality, however, this definition provides a tunnel-vision

view into the world of design. Mechanical engineers who design consumer products have a

twofold responsibility. In addition to designing functional machines, successful product

designers must create devices that consumers will want to purchase and use. While there are

many possible factors that can make a product appealing to a buyer, perhaps the most important

factor is an ability to make the user's life easier in some small way. In this way, product design is

a service profession.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 7

 CHAPTER – 2

ANALYSIS OF BASIC STAIR ASCENSION

Before delving into the theory behind complex stair-climbing mechanisms, it should first be

noted that it is possible to climb stairs using an ordinary wheel. As shown in the figure, a

properly applied force F will allow a wheel to drive over a stair.

In Figure, Fm is the force of gravity acting on the machine, Fs is the horizontal force exerted on

the wheel by the stair, N is the normal force, and d and h are the diameter of the wheel and

height of the stair, respectively.

Balancing the forces shown in figure yields

Σ𝑀 = 0

𝑑
𝐹 ( − ℎ) − 𝐹𝑚 √𝑑ℎ − ℎ2 = 0
2

√𝑑ℎ−ℎ2
𝐹 = 𝐹𝑚 𝑑 (1)
( −ℎ)
2

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 8

 Fig.2.1

As equation (1) demonstrates, this method of stair-climbing is only viable for stairs in which stair

height h is less than the wheel radius d/2. To climb over a step seven inches high, each wheel

would need to be at least fourteen inches in diameter. The larger wheels necessary for this task

make this method of stair-climbing somewhat undesirable. Also, the climbing motion produced

by simply rolling over stairs is a jarring motion rather than a smooth one. In addition, the

frictional force between the wheel and the edge of the stair must be sufficient to allow the wheel

to grab and roll over the stair. A friction coefficient of too small a magnitude will cause the

wheel to slip against the stair rather than climb.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 9

 CHAPTER – 3

THE STAIR CLIMBING HAND CART---A NEW CONCEPT

The stair-climbing hand truck is designed to reduce liability rather than increase it. Conventional

hand trucks work well on flat ground, but their usefulness decreases when it becomes necessary

to move an object over an irregular surface. Package deliverymen, for example, often find it

necessary to drag loaded hand trucks up short flights of stairs just to reach the front door of a

building. The entire purpose of using a conventional hand truck is to avoid having to lift and

carry heavy objects around.

Lifting a hand truck up the stairs defeats the purpose of the device, since the user must provide

enough upward force to lift the entire weight of the cart and its contents. Furthermore, the

geometry of a hand truck makes it nearly impossible to lift with one's legs, as is the proper form.

Considerable strain is placed on the back muscles and the risk of operator injury is sharply

increased. The pulling up of a standard hand truck up the stairs results in a bumpy and jarring

motion. This motion may damage the items loaded on the hand truck or cause them to fall off

entirely. A hand truck that could climb stairs without requiring the user to lift would improve the

safety of moving heavy objects over irregular surfaces.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 10

 CHAPTER – 4

DESIGN OBJECTIVES

The functional requirements set forth for this stair-climbing hand truck are:

* The device should be able to provide most or all of the upward force necessary to ascend a

flight of stairs.

* The device should be able to bear up to 35 kg (a typical maximum load for an ordinary person

car lift)

* The cost of the device should be comparable to that of a conventional consumer-grade hand

truck.

* The product should be ergonomic and intuitive to use.

* The weight of the product should be comparable to that of conventional models.

* The appearance of the product should be similar to that of conventional models.

* A hand truck with the ability to climb stairs would decrease the possibility of injury from

having to lift a wheeled cart or its contents over an obstruction. If successful, this device should

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 11

provide increased safety both in the home and in the workplace. Also, it is hoped that a simple

stair-climbing device such as this one might increase public acceptance of other, more complex

stair-climbing devices such as wheelchairs.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 12

 CHAPTER – 5

THE TRI-STAR WHEEL DESIGN

The Tri-Star wheel was designed in 1967 by Robert and John Forsyth of the Lockheed Aircraft

Corporation. They were first developed as a module of the Lockheed Terrastar, a commercially

unsuccessful amphibious military vehicle. A tri-star wheel functions as an ordinary wheel on flat

ground, but has the ability to climb automatically when an impediment to rolling is encountered.

This wheel design consists of three tires, each mounted to a separate shaft. These shafts are

located at the vertices of an equilateral triangle. The three shafts are geared to a fourth, central

shaft (to which a motor may be attached). When geared in this quasi-planetary fashion, these

triangular sets of wheels can negotiate many types of terrain, including sand and mud; they can

also allow a vehicle to climb over small obstructions such as rocks, holes, and stairs. The wheel

assembly may be gear-driven, with two wheels in rolling contact with the ground. The third

wheel idles at the top until the lower front wheel hits an obstruction. The obstruction prevents the

lower front wheel from moving forward but does not affect the motion of the driving axle. This

causes the top wheel to roll forward into position as the new front wheel. This wheel usually

lands on top of the obstruction and allows the rest of the assembly to vault over the obstruction.

The tri-star wheel design allows relatively smooth ascension of stairs. The assembly functions in

a similar fashion to a large wheel with several chunks missing. The compliance of the tri-star is

greater than that of an irregular wheel, however, because of the gearing of the tri-star. In most

cases, the gearing allows the mechanism to interact only with the horizontal and vertical stair

surfaces, avoiding the points and wrapping around each stair. Its weight and cost make the full

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 13

tri-star system overkill for a simple consumer-grade product; however, tri-star wheels might still

be a realistic option if lighter, simpler wheels were to be designed.

Fig 5.1. Tri- star wheel arrangement

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 14

 CHAPTER -6

DESIGN OF STAIR CLIMBING HAND CART

In this project, the final design was an outcome of a sequential analysis and modification of

stages which had been started with a simple roller based design. To attain higher efficiency and

greater stability the more focus is concentrated on the design of frame and strength of wheels

Fig.6.1 2-D CAD drawing of the final design of the hand cart

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 15

A. Modification of roller which only rolls over flat surface to the rollers which can climb the

stairs

In the existing design, each single or double wheel set on either side is only capable of moving

any vehicle on flat surface, but further study on same topic helps us to carry any goods on

vehicle on stepped surface (stairs). In this concept we attached a set of three wheels on either

side of vehicle rather than single or double wheel. These three wheels are attached to the frame at

120º apart with the help of nut and bolt.

Fig. 6.2 ---- 3-d drawing of the basic model of stair lift

B. Modification of straight to curved wheel frame

The straight wheel frame shown in the 1st figure below takes more thrust to tilt the wheel frame

to engage next planetary wheel. The length of each arm is high and thus creates vibration and the

vehicle would be unstable. In the present design, the wheel frame was made curved so that the

front surface of the arm could not collide with the edge of the stair. The optimization of the

curvature was done to eliminate above problem.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 16

 Fig 6.3. Modified Wheel Frame

C. Modified final design

In the existing design, the power transmission to the single or double wheel trolley is useless to

climb the stairs due to height factor of stairs. The design of the straight wheel frame became

more complicated and was needed to be modified with its curved- spherical shape to give proper

drive, which creates more frictional force. For these reason, three wheel set on each side of

vehicle attached with frame was introduced to provide smooth power transmission in order to

climb stairs without much difficulty. Frame arrangement is suitable to transmit exact velocity

ratio also. It provided higher efficiency and compact layout with reliable service. Easier

maintenance was possible in case of replacing any defective parts such as nut, bolt, washer, etc.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 17

Fig. 6.4 Orthographic view of wheel and shaft arrangement

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 18

 CHAPTER – 7

ANALYSIS OF STAIR CLIMBING HAND CART

1. FORCE ANALYSIS
Fsinθ

F cosθ
R
(R2-K2)1/2

K
Resinφ
Re

Recosφ

(W1+W2)/2

Fig.7.1-Forces acting on the system

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 19

W1= weight of objects to be carried

W2= weight of the hand cart

Re = reaction force on one side

F = force applied (on one lever)

R = 18 cm

k= 14.5 cm

𝑊1+𝑊2
( − 𝐹𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃) . 𝑘 = 𝐹𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃. √𝑅 2 − 𝑘 2 (1)
2

𝑊1+𝑊2
𝑅𝑒 = √(𝐹𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃)2 + ( − 𝐹𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃)2 (2)
2

𝑊1+𝑊2−2𝐹𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜑 = (3)
2𝐹𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃

𝑅𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜑 = 𝐹𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 (4)

𝑊1+𝑊2
𝑅𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜑 + 𝐹𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 = (5)
2

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 20

2. MAXIMUM LOAD CALCULATIONS

W
100 cm

15 cm

Fig 7.2 Maximum load determination

𝐹. 100 = 𝑊 .15

100
→𝑊= .𝐹
15

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 21

When we assume F to be 10 kgf,

We get,

W= 66.67 kgf

3. BENDING MOMENT AND STRESS ANALYSIS

Length of the shaft= l

Span of forces = a (distance between A and B)

A) HORIZONTAL

Fcosθ Fcosθ

A B

Re cosφ Re cosφ

Fig 7.3 Horizontal load and bending moment diagrams

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 22

B.M at A = Re cosφ x (l/2 - a/2) cw

B.M at B = Re cosφ x ( l/2 - a/2) ccw

B) VERTICAL

Re sinφ Fsinθ Fsinθ Re sinφ

Fig 7.4 Vertical load and bending moment diagrams

The critical section is identified to be the middle section.

(Mb) max = Resinφ . (l/2) + Fsinθ . (a/2)

σmax = (Mb)max/ Z

𝜋 𝑑3
𝑍= , d= diameter of shaft
32

𝜎𝑦
𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 =
𝑛
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 23
If W1 = 67 kg

W2 = 20 kg

l= 38 cm

a= 33 cm

F=100 N

Θ = 450

n= 60

From (2) ,

Re = 75 N

Φ= -21.050

Therefore, (Mb) max = 6550 N mm

Solving we get,

Shaft diameter, d = 25.4 mm

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 24

 CHAPTER – 8

RESULTS

The figures below show aspects of the completed prototype during operation.

The modified hand truck was able to climb stairs while bearing a moderate load.

The prototype was not tested with full load, due to the lack of a welded strong base to carry the

load.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 25

 CHAPTER – 9

CONCLUSION

Though this project had some limitations regarding the strength and built of the structure, it can

be considered to be a small step forward, as far Stair Climbing Vehicles are concerned. During

the test run of this project, it was realized that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider this design

for carrying heavy loads up the stairs. This product will be well acclaimed if it can be

commercialized to suit the needs. Though the initial cost of the project seemed to be higher but

more accurate manufacturing would shorten this.

As far the commercial aspects of this product are concerned, if this product can be fully

automated and produced at a lower cost the acceptance will be unimaginable. Presently, there are

no competitors for such a kind of product in our market.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 26

 CHAPTER – 10

DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It is worth considering an electric motor being placed in the system to run the shaft or to run the

wheels of the tri-star wheel mechanism with the help of gears. There should also be systems

employed to control the functioning of the motor assembly. A suspension system could also be

incorporated to minimize shock and vibration.

Using a timer circuit, the movement would be more precise, accurate and easy to operate. With

the help of timer circuits, the vehicle could run over a predetermined step size smoothly without

using any switch.

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 27

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Dr. R.K. Bansal, A text book of Strength of Materials, Laxmi Publications (P) Ltd.

2. R.S. Khurmi, J.K. Gupta, A textbook of Machine Design, S.ChandPublishing House (P)

Ltd.

3. Hsueh-Er, C., “Stair-climbing vehicle, “Patent No. US2008164665(A1)”, Jan 24. 2008

4. Siegwart, R., Lauria, M., Mäusli, P., Winnendael, M., “Design and Implementation of an

Innovative Micro-Rover,” Proceedings of Robotics 98, the 3rd Conference and

Exposition on Robotics in Challenging Environments, April 26-30 1998, Albuquerque,

New Mexico

5. F. W. Crimson. U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles. Crestline Publishing Co. Inc., 1983.

6. www.wikipedia.com

7. www.mit.edu

DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, GEC TCR 28