On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:01:58 -0500, RoyJ wrote:

Doesn't surprise me too much. The excavator arm was pointed forward,
caught the bridge beam, and then tilted up and back. The main forces on
the excavator put the first arm into straight compression with all the
resulting force into the base casting of the frame and then out to the
tracks. No bending moments involved. The main cylinders would have been
in tension, that will blow the seals and end caps out, again, no big
damage. In one of the pictures in the middle of the sequence, you can
see the right side main cylinder sticking straight up, no shaft sticking
out. The left side cylinder is intact, must mean that the lower mount or
eye is broken.

Ignoramus21938 wrote:
On 2008-03-22, RoyJ wrote:
From the looks of things, the cleanup cost $134,000, the offending
span
was completely replaced at a cost of about half million.

http://c141heaven.us/jokes/truck_bridge.html Scroll down to the bottom
for a June news article.

It is amazing how little visible damage was sustained by the Huindai
excavator.


There's probably some severely damaged pivots and bearings, and possibly
stripped gears, however. I wouldn't be surprised if the chassis wasn't
all bent down in the middle, too.

That sucker had to have hit hard.

--
Tim Wescott
Control systems and communications consulting
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Need to learn how to apply control theory in your embedded system?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" by Tim Wescott
Elsevier/Newnes, http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html