Advanced Sheet Metal Design Using Siemens NX - Sheet metal Box Assembly

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this project is to design a sheet metal Box assembly using Siemens NX sheetmetal workbench.

INTRODUCTION

Sheet metal is formed by an industrial process into thin, flat pieces. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metal working, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Nearly infinite everyday objects are fabricated from sheet metal. Thicknesses of sheet metal can vary significantly; extremely thin sheets are considered foil or leaf, and pieces thicker than 6 mm (0.25 inches) are considered plate steel  or structural steel.Sheet metal is available in flat pieces or coiled strips. The coils are formed by running a continuous sheet of metal through a roll slitter.There are many different metals that can be made into sheet metal, such as aluminium, brass, copper, steel, tin, nickel, and titanium.

Here I modelled a Sheet metal box assembly using Siemens NX Computer Aided Designing Software.

DESIGN METHODOLGY

The steps and procedures followed for Designing the model are shown below as a flow chart.

DESCRIPTION

Various sheet metal design tools used for this project are briefly explained here.

Sketch: Sketch tool was used for creating the sketch required for tabs, cut outs, dimples, beads etc.

Tab: Tab is the base feature of sheet metal modelling. Tab is created by extruding a sketch along a vector by adding a thickness value.

Hem flange: This feature is used to fold the sheet metal flange back to the body itself. It was applied on the edges of box assembly for safe handling. It also improves the toughness of edges and prevent the damages that may occur to the edges of the box.

Flange:A flange is an external or internal ridge. Flanges were used to create the side walls of the box as well as hinges.

Dimple: Dimples are used to lift the material according to a sketch that simulates a stamping tool.

Bead: Beads are used to enhance the strength of the sheet metal part. It lifts the material according to a sketch that simulates a stamping tool. Here, four beads were used at the bottom of the box assembly.

Mirror body: It is used to mirror an existing body across a plane. 

Mirror feature: It is used to mirror a feature across a plane. Here the features such as beads were mirrored using this tool.

Normal cut out: This tool is used to cut the material by projecting a sketch onto the model and then cutting normal to the faces intersected by the projection.

Unbend: This feature is used to unbend the adjacent bends and flatten them.

Rebend:It is used to rebend the unbended corners after adding any features on the faces.

Closed corner : Used to close the corner where two adjacent flanges meet by extending the bends and flanges. It eliminates the gap between adjacent flanges which were used to create walls of the box assembly.

Break corner : It is used to round or chamfer the sharp corners of a tab or flange.

Datum plane : Here, Datum plane was used to create lid of the box. Datum plane is used to construct additional features.

Unite: It combines the volume of two or more bodies into a sinle body. It was used to combine the body which was mirrored across a plane.

Flat pattern: It is used to create a flat pattern feature from the formed sheet metal part.

STANDARD VIEWS

Several standard views such as front, side,top, bottom and isometric views of the box assembly are shown below.

ISOMETRIC VIEW

FRONT VIEW

RIGHT SIDE VIEW

LEFT SIDE VIEW

TOP VIEW

BOTTOM VIEW

DRAWING SHEETS

CONCLUSION

Thus, the designing of the sheet metal box assembly was successfully done using Siemens sheet metal workbench.