Advanced Sheet Metal Design Using NX Cad Challenge_1_Casing Design
Title of the project: Advanced Sheet Metal Design using NX-CAD Challenge 1:Casing Design
Objective: To design the casing using sheet-metal operations in NX-CAD.
Introduction:
A Casing is a protective covering over a mechanical part or a system to prevent any physical damage that can hamper the performance of the components beneath it. The material used for casings can be plastic, steel, ceramic etc. Various alloys can also be used based on the application. The thickness of the material in this project is 1mm. In this project, a casing was designed from the scratch following the basic principles and tools to perform sheet metal operations in NX 12.0. NX is an efficient software to help many designers to design products and later use them for analysis purposes. The tools used in NX-Sheetmetal also provide an edge over the other Softwares on the basis of ease of use.
Design Methodology:
The methodology followed is as follows:
Description:
There were a lot of commands used in this challenge that are very essential. Following is the description of each command.
Tab: Tab is a command used to create a base for any sheet metal part that can be extruded from a sketch. The sketching plane can be selected as per the designer’s choice.
Normal Cut: This command is used to cut the material normally or perpendicularly from a datum plane as per our requirements at particular places.
Bend: This command bends the material as per the sketch at selected regions. The angle of the bend can also be controlled. In this project, the angle of the bend was 90.
Flanges: This command will allow us to select the edge of the base to create a projecting flat extruded surface. The angle, width, length, and type of flange can be determined as per the requirements.
Unbend: This command is used to unbend the sheet metal parts to create geometries and work on complicated designs. In this command, we have to select a stationary face and then select the corners of flanges to unbend.
Dimple: Dimple is a command that can be used to bevel/ lift off the sketched region created on the flat face. The material can be lifted off or pushed down according to the user's discretion.
Studio Spline: Creates a curve along the points selected. Could be closed, open and 3D.
Edge Break: This is a peculiar command that can create smooth edges after selecting the edges. We can chamfer or create a radius as per the requirements and manufacturability.
Hole: It can be used to make customized or standardized holes along with a defined point or path. The dept of the hole can be controlled.
Move: A command used to move the sketch or geometry to the required position as per the constraints defined by the user.
Flat Pattern: The user chooses this command to create a flat view of the sheet metal after unbending all the sides and faces. This view can be used in drawing the flat pattern along with the bend radius and other dimensions.
Bend Table: Bend table command ensures to include all the information regarding the properties of each special feature. The properties include radius, direction, angle,etc
Bead: The selected sketch is lifted off from the base to provide strength to the material. Similar to dimple, the material can be removed in both directions.
VIEWS OF THE CASING:
a)Top View b)Side View
c) Isometric view d) Front View
Drawing:
Conclusion:
The sheet metal design of the casing was completed using the basic commands such as Tab, Flange, Normal Cutout, Studio spline, Dimple, Bend, Unbend, Hole, Move, Bead, Flat pattern, Bend table, and edge break. These basic commands have influenced the designer to maintain geometric constraints and achieve the final product.