W.S.G. Isaac Newton

At Enerpac Heavy Lifting Technology in Hengelo, Heavy Lifting equipment is designed and manufactured. It is a department of the larger Enerpac Tool Group of which the headquarter is based in the United States. Multiple lifting solutions are offered with a capacity of lifting max. 1200 tons. These solutions can be standard solutions from their catalog, or adapted to the specific needs of a client. The large lifting capacities then of course mean that the equipment, materials, and tooling are all large and heavy. As I have always been more attracted to the fields of larger vehicles and construction building within mechanical engineering, doing my internship at Enerpac was an amazing fit.

During my internship, I worked in their Mechanical Engineering team to perform calculations and make recommendations on two of the accessories of their gantry systems, namely the headerbeams and the side shift units. The side shift units perform the transverse movements of the load by moving over the headerbeams which are on top of the hydraulic lifting units, as displayed in the figure below. The goal of the calculations of the side shift units was to improve the documentation present and determine the safety factor in these units, as this was required for a client. For the headerbeam the calculations focused on buckling based on the Eurocode norms, these calculations were worked out in a calculation sheet.

It was a very good assignment for me to apply my engineering knowledge in practice as a lot of hand calculations had to be performed, FEM simulations had to be done and research into Eurocodes and buckling had to be performed. It was great to be able to apply the knowledge in engineering that I have gathered over the years in real-life scenarios in a commercial environment. I have had a great time at Enerpac, and it was amazing to finally be able to put my interest in larger constructions into practice!