Lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear: Procedure, Optimization, and Testing
Mountaineering is usually labelled as an extreme sport with a risk of injury. Protection gear offers climbers safety, but usually at the cost of additional weight. Producing a lightweight design with a large enough load-bearing capacity is desired by the industry. This paper aims to prepare a lightw...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-08-01
|
| Series: | Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215098625001417 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849687280340434944 |
|---|---|
| author | Martin Sotola Pavel Marsalek David Rybansky Martin Fusek Jakub Mesicek Jiri Hajnys |
| author_facet | Martin Sotola Pavel Marsalek David Rybansky Martin Fusek Jakub Mesicek Jiri Hajnys |
| author_sort | Martin Sotola |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Mountaineering is usually labelled as an extreme sport with a risk of injury. Protection gear offers climbers safety, but usually at the cost of additional weight. Producing a lightweight design with a large enough load-bearing capacity is desired by the industry. This paper aims to prepare a lightweight design of a spring-loaded camming device utilizing effective topology optimization. The proposed procedure contains optimization, manufacturing and testing of a new design. Topology optimization is used on cams to find optimal material distribution concerning their stiffness. Topology optimization uses multiple load cases and multi-stage optimization. The combination leads to effective design without compromising the efficiency of optimization. The presented results yield a time reduction of up to 70 %. After post-processing of results and smoothing geometry, the new cams are additively manufactured and assembled into prototypes of spring-loaded camming devices, and they are evaluated by laboratory testing defined by standards. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b89e647a780d407fb547fbf09bb50e63 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2215-0986 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-b89e647a780d407fb547fbf09bb50e632025-08-20T03:22:22ZengElsevierEngineering Science and Technology, an International Journal2215-09862025-08-016810208610.1016/j.jestch.2025.102086Lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear: Procedure, Optimization, and TestingMartin Sotola0Pavel Marsalek1David Rybansky2Martin Fusek3Jakub Mesicek4Jiri Hajnys5Department of Applied Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VSB–Technical University of Ostrava, 17. Listopadu 2172/15, Ostrava, 708 00, Czech Republic; Corresponding authors.Department of Applied Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VSB–Technical University of Ostrava, 17. Listopadu 2172/15, Ostrava, 708 00, Czech Republic; Corresponding authors.Department of Applied Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VSB–Technical University of Ostrava, 17. Listopadu 2172/15, Ostrava, 708 00, Czech RepublicDepartment of Applied Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VSB–Technical University of Ostrava, 17. Listopadu 2172/15, Ostrava, 708 00, Czech RepublicDepartment of Machining, Assembly and Engineering Metrology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VSB–Technical University of Ostrava, 17. Listopadu 2172/15, Ostrava, 708 00, Czech RepublicDepartment of Machining, Assembly and Engineering Metrology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VSB–Technical University of Ostrava, 17. Listopadu 2172/15, Ostrava, 708 00, Czech RepublicMountaineering is usually labelled as an extreme sport with a risk of injury. Protection gear offers climbers safety, but usually at the cost of additional weight. Producing a lightweight design with a large enough load-bearing capacity is desired by the industry. This paper aims to prepare a lightweight design of a spring-loaded camming device utilizing effective topology optimization. The proposed procedure contains optimization, manufacturing and testing of a new design. Topology optimization is used on cams to find optimal material distribution concerning their stiffness. Topology optimization uses multiple load cases and multi-stage optimization. The combination leads to effective design without compromising the efficiency of optimization. The presented results yield a time reduction of up to 70 %. After post-processing of results and smoothing geometry, the new cams are additively manufactured and assembled into prototypes of spring-loaded camming devices, and they are evaluated by laboratory testing defined by standards.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215098625001417Topology optimizationSpring-loaded camming deviceCamSmoothingAdditive manufacturingLoad-bearing capacity |
| spellingShingle | Martin Sotola Pavel Marsalek David Rybansky Martin Fusek Jakub Mesicek Jiri Hajnys Lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear: Procedure, Optimization, and Testing Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal Topology optimization Spring-loaded camming device Cam Smoothing Additive manufacturing Load-bearing capacity |
| title | Lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear: Procedure, Optimization, and Testing |
| title_full | Lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear: Procedure, Optimization, and Testing |
| title_fullStr | Lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear: Procedure, Optimization, and Testing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear: Procedure, Optimization, and Testing |
| title_short | Lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear: Procedure, Optimization, and Testing |
| title_sort | lightweight design of mountaineering protection gear procedure optimization and testing |
| topic | Topology optimization Spring-loaded camming device Cam Smoothing Additive manufacturing Load-bearing capacity |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215098625001417 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT martinsotola lightweightdesignofmountaineeringprotectiongearprocedureoptimizationandtesting AT pavelmarsalek lightweightdesignofmountaineeringprotectiongearprocedureoptimizationandtesting AT davidrybansky lightweightdesignofmountaineeringprotectiongearprocedureoptimizationandtesting AT martinfusek lightweightdesignofmountaineeringprotectiongearprocedureoptimizationandtesting AT jakubmesicek lightweightdesignofmountaineeringprotectiongearprocedureoptimizationandtesting AT jirihajnys lightweightdesignofmountaineeringprotectiongearprocedureoptimizationandtesting |