Abstract

Stacker cranes handle pallet placement in the warehouse, moving longitudinally along the aisles between the warehouse shelves to deposit and retrieve loads. They come in different heights and move along two towing rails, one on the ground and one overhead that is connected to the rack. Stacker cranes are susceptible to earthquakes that can damage them and the racks around them. As an important piece of equipment in the warehouse, any damage they suffer can impact heavily on restoration costs and can interrupt pallet flows causing further economic damage to the warehouse owners.

Each region of the world has different seismic norms that describe how to calculate the seismic load that structures may suffer in that location. These norms are intended to ensure the safety of structures, establish seismic intensity levels, and set minimum requirements for the seismic design of structures. The seismic load specification is based on determining the expected magnitude and intensity of earthquakes and their effect on the terrain at a given site, and converting these in some way into the parameters of ground motion.

The stacker crane in this article will be installed in Mexico in seismic zone B.