Fender Design
DESIGN OF FRONT FENDER
Introduction about fenders
Fender is the US English term for part of an automobile (vehicle body) that frames a wheel well (fender underside). Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks, liquids and other road sprays from being thrown into the air by rotating tire. When the vehicle is moving, tire picks up stones, others and hurl them in all directions. Fenders are basically present to prevent any injuries to pedestrians and contains the motion of particles. Most passenger automobiles have four fenders one over each wheel.
For vehicles with narrow car body that exposes the tire, fender is an exposed curve over the top of the tire. For wider body vehicles that cover the tire, the fender forms the wheel well surrounding the tire and is not directly visible from above the car body. Wheel wells tends to be much larger than the diameter of tire because they do not move with the tire suspension, without touching interior of the wheel well. More elaborate designs include fender skirts for enclosing the outside edge of wheel well and stylised pontoon fenders for exposed fenders.
Types of Fenders
1. Full Bumper type:
These types of fenders were used in earlier models of vehicles. They contribute to the major increment of the steel weight by just covering the front headlights with respect to the bumper region. The problem associated with this kind of fender is there is a lot of wastage in the blank and every inch of a material is a cost to the industry.
2. Half Bumper type:
These fenders are mainly used for serving the purpose of cost-cutting and reducing enough proportions of the steel wait resulting in a reduction of the weight of the vehicle slightly. They can be economically manufactured, i.e by slightly increasing the blank size, we can produce two fenders at a time.
Design considerations and guidelines to be followed while fender design
The front fender has basically five mounting positions with respect to the other components. The mounting positions are as follows:
- Drip Area Mounting
- A-Pillar Mounting
- Sill Mounting
- Bumper Mounting
- Baffle Mounting
For the creation of the Drip Area Mounting, the given Master Section is followed (given in question) and the other mounting points are created by assuming appropriate positions with the respected components.
1. Drip mounting area:
The drip area is the most important mounting in a fender, it is the point where the fender has to be attached to the engine compartment. The drip area should be designed in such a way that it should be at least 150mm away from the front end of the fender to have sufficient space for mounting headlamps housing. Mostly the drip area starts from 200mm away from the rear end of the fender, to have sufficient space for the cowl which carries the wiper equipment. The length of the drip area depends on the length of the fender.
2. A-Pillar mounting area:
The A-pillar is the structural pillar that combines the body with the roof . this makes the sides of the windshield rest.
3. Sill mounting area:
The Sill is the panel directly below the bottom of the door supporting the floor and may be used to combine the floor and the body . The bottom end of the fender is mounted on the sill body for reinforcement of the fender panel , thus the sill mounting position is designed with holes and emboss.
4. Bumper mounting area:
Bumper mounting area is used to fix the plastic bumper to the fender with the help of the fasteners.
5. Baffle mounting area:
These mounting points are created for attaching plastic components i.e baffle which prevents chipping inside the engine compartment.
Orientations of Front Fender:
Right side view
Front view
Top view
Isometric view
Model tree
