Lightweight optimization design of hydraulic excavator bucket arm based on Altair inspire

Abstract The hinged part of the hydraulic excavator’s stick and the upper end of its boom is a key connection component. Altair Inspire software was utilized to redesign the stick, reducing the mass of the hydraulic excavator’s body parts and enhancing its structural performance. On the premise of ensuring that the performance of the stick is not affected, excavator material was selected as the manufacturing material for all parts. The topology optimization of the bucket arm was carried out according to setting different volume and thickness constraint targets. Through the manual fitting technology of PolyNURBS, the optimized model was geometrically reconstructed and strength checked. The optimal lightweight model was selected. Subsequently, motion simulation was performed on the lightweight model to verify the practicality of the experiment. The results show that under the conditions of meeting the requirements of displacement, safety factor, and Mises equivalent stress, the final mass of the bucket rod is 9 g, which is 74.29% lighter than before optimization, significantly reducing the weight of the hydraulic excavator bucket rod structure. It provides a new idea for the lightweight design of the hydraulic excavator stick.