From time to time, clients require engineering certification for transport frames, support stands, workshop stands, washdown or maintenance stands and the like. Transport frame certification involves engineering analyses to determine compliance to certain standards, including for example AS 2538:2016 Vehicle support stands, and the NTC Load Restraint Guide. Our engineers have experience certifying client stand designs, and this post outlines a few such jobs.
Figure 1: Example Light Vehicle Stand
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has an article about the mandatory requirements for the supply of vehicle transport stands. The ACCC there outlines briefly the requirements of the Consumer Goods (Vehicle Support Stands) Safety Standard 2017, before advertising related recalls of non compliant products. The latest recall is dated only 15 days before this post.
Could these recalls have been averted? Would thorough engineering analysis and certification have prevented their occurrence? Consider that the cost of a recall – or even the cost of a fatality or serious injury – dwarfs the cost of the engineering “due diligence” that could have prevented it. By having their stands certified by Black Square Engineering, our clients can safely market their product without fear of recall.
One of our clients approached us with a series of light vehicle stands to be reviewed and certified for use in Australia prior to selling them as a rated product. Figure 1 shows an example of the type of device, as seen in light vehicle workshops. The products presented by our client failed the stability requirements of AS2538 Vehicle support stands, which we advised them, and did not issue a certificate. While this may have been disappointing for our client, it prevented the financial and reputation costs that a recall would have involved.
Another client wanted their light vehicle washdown stand (figure 2) to be certified, particularly noting its effects on the concrete foundation, and whether additional structure or footings would be required to better distribute the load. Black Square certified the stand, imposing minor personnel access limitations to satisfy the safety requirements of AS1657:2013 Fixed platforms, walkways, stairways and ladders—Design, construction and installation.
Figure 2: Client washdown stand, with a Toyota Land Cruiser tray back ute parked on top
Our engineers have also certified several truck transport frames for moving heavy industrial and electrical equipment appropriately. Figure 3 shows one such example, which Black Square checked against the requirements of the NTC Load Restraint Guide. The NTC stipulates Loading Performance Standards, including that the load restraint system must be capable of
“withstanding the forces that would result if the loaded vehicle was subjected to: …
0.8 g deceleration in a forward direction;
(ii) 0.5 g deceleration in a rearward direction;
(iii) 0.5 g acceleration in a lateral direction”.
We used Finite Element Analysis (FEA) as one or our tools to demonstrate that our client’s design met these criteria. We then provided RPEQ engineering certification to the NTC Load Restraint Guide, and AS3990:1996 Mechanical Equipment – Steelwork, making note of certain operational and manufacturing requirements.
Figure 3: A client designed transport frame overlaid with Black Square’s Finite Element Analysis Data
In addition to certification work, we can assist clients through the design process with engineering support, or provide complete design solutions. Our design work comes with consideration of manufacturing economy, lean functionality and compliance to the relevant Australian Standards – and RPEQ engineering certification.
If you have a problem that you can’t stand, we can.