Advanced Sheet Metal Design Using NX Cad Challenge_5_Odd Shaped Enclosure
ODD SHAPED ENCLOSURE
OBJECTIVE
To design an odd shaped enclosure and create a draft of it using Siernens NX Sheet metal application.
INTRODUCTION -
Sheet metal is metal formed by an industrial process into thin, flat pieces. Sheet metal is one of the fundarmental
forms used in metal working, and it can be cut and bent intoa variety of shapes. Countless everyday objects are
fabricated from sheet metal. Thicknesses can vary significantly; extremely thin sheets are considered foil or leaf, and
pieces thicker than 6 mm (0.25 in) 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
througha roll sitter.
NX CAD Sheet Metal Module - Creating fast, accurate flat patterns is the goal of any organization that
manufactures products which contain sheet metal parts. NX Sheet Metal providesa set of tools within the NX design
environment thqg allows for simple and fast design of sheet metal parts, dependent on their material and
manufacturing process, the most common of which is straight brake sheet metal forming.
With NX Sheet Metal, formed and unformed representations of the parts are created closely following the industry
workfiows and best practices for bending calculations, tooling, and sheet metal features. The value lies in improving
quality and reducing cost of sheet metal parts by producing an accurate sheet metal pattern as the correct input for
part manufacture, whether internally or to a supplier.
This project is tO create the enclosure, by creating the solid model and wraping the sheet metal over the solid
surface. Then we need to add the features in the wrapped sheet metal.To add more features like Dimple, Louver,
Beads then the sheet metal has to be unbend. Finally flat pattern has to be created to check the manufacturing
fesability of that product.
DESIGN METHODOLOGY
Design methodology is explained by the flow chart as follows:
Features Used in the Modelling
:-
The software used to design this component is NX-CAD also called as Unigraphics. We are exploring the Sheet
metal Module of NX CAD in this project. Some of the commonly used features through this modelling are explained as
below.
Sketch - It is the basic of any design.
• Extrude - It creates a feature by extruding a section along a vebtor.
• Sheet Metal from solid- It builds a sheet metal model that takes its shapes frorm a collection of planar faces.
This command is used to convert the solid body into a sheet metal body. After selecting the cornmand and the
solid body, we can also remove the edge sharpness by removing the material at these places.
• 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.
• Flange - It is used to create an extended part (bend) of a sheet metal. It is created at the edge of one side of
the model. 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.
•Jog - It modifies the rmodel by lifting material on one side of a sketch line, adding a flange between the two
sides. Jog is created at another end of the model opposite to the flange. Jog is a command to lift off one whole
side of the part By selecting a line and the plane, the material can be pushed down or lifted off depending on
the situation.
This feature is used to unbend the adjacent bends and flatten them. Here it is used to create more
features. 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
fianges to unbend.
• Unbend
• Rebend- It is used to rebend the corners that were bent before along with any features added after the
unbend feature.
• Bead - It lifts material along the contour of a sketch that simulatesa stamping tool, it is used for giving strength
to the sheet metal. Here two beads are created on the unbent surface. 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.
• Hole- it adds a hole to one or more solid bodies in a part or an asembly with options for counterboredl,
countersunk and threaded. Here six simple holes are created on the unbent surface with a diameter of lomm. lt
can be used to make customized or standardized holes along with a defined point or path. The dept of the hole
Can be controlled.
Flat pattern - It creates a flat pattern feature from the formed sheet metal part. 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.
Steps Followed during modelling:-
Step-l: Creating the solid body
The sketch for the solid body has to be created. Then the sketch is to be extruded using Extrude command
which is avaliable in the modelling workbench.
Step 2 Extrusion of the skectch
The sketch is extruded upto 200mm. Thus he solid body is ready to wrap up with the sheet metal over the
surface. By wraping the sheet metal we can get the solid shape profile in the sheet metal.
Step 3: Wrap the solid body
The solid body is now wrapped with the sheet metal using the command Sheet metal from the solid. This
command helps in building a sheet metal model that takes its shape from a collection of plannar surface.
Step 4: Adding Features
The features like flange is added at the edge of the sheet metal. Jog Feature is added by creating a sketch
on the face of the sheet metal. Then the jog command is used with the required height to make the feature.
Step 5: Unbend
The sheet metal is unbend using unbend command. This is done to adda features like dimple, bead in the
bending region.
Step 6: Creating Bead
For creating the Bead, sketch profile is created on the face of the sheet metal and the bead command
is used with the requires depth value. Then the feature is mirrored using the mirror feature command.
Step 7 Hole creation
The hole is created, using hole feature command. Here the position of the hle is created and the diameter
is mentioned as per the requirement.
Step 8: Rebend
After creating all the required features, then the model is to be Rebend. This enable us to check the
manufacturability of the product without any interference while bending
Step 9 Flat pattern
This option is to create the flat pattern feature from the formed sheet metal part. This finally gives the
whole sheet metal part with the added feature which helps us in the manufacturing process.
Conclusions:-
The sheet metal design of an odd-shaped enclosure was completed using the basic commands such as Tab,
Flange, Sheet Metal from solid, Jog, Hole, Unbend, Bead, Flat pattern, and Bend table. These basic commands have
influenced the designer to maintain geometric constraints and achieve the final product.
Some collections of Model:
feature tree
draft