Failure analysis of a shaft of a car lift system

The failure of a car lift system can result in severe damage to people and structures. It is important to understand the fatigue behavior of these machines, and, in case of a failure, to understand its causes and the possible solutions to increase safety. In this work the failure of the shaft of one of these car lift systems is analyzed. The possible causes of the failure through design, material, fractographical inspections and finite elements analysis were investigated, and possible solutions to avoid these cases in the future are suggested. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of ICM11