Fender Design

Fender Design

Fender

Fender is the part of an automobile (vehicle body) that frames a wheel well (the fender underside). Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks, liquids, and other road spray from being thrown into the air by the rotating tyre. During the rotation of the tyre, stones and other similar particles are hurled in all directions. Fenders are provided to prevent injuries to pedestrians due to these particles.

Types of Fenders

Nowadays half bumper type fenders are used commonly. It is done mainly to reduce material consumption and scrap.

Different mountings in a Fender

Design

The design of the fender is done in accordance with the given skin data and master section. The areas without master section are designed by me by following the required standards.

Master Sketch.

Drip Area

Drip area gives connection to the fender with the engine compartment. The major consideration while designing the drip area is the gap between the front end of fender to the drip and the gap between rear end of fender to the drip. The gap at front should be 150mm and the one at rear should be minimum 200mm. These gaps are provided to accommodate headlamp unit and wiper motor units respectively.

An opening of 3 degrees after a gap is provided to prevent the visibility of fasteners through the gap between fender and hood outer while watching from outside. There should also be a minimum 10mm clearance from the drip to the engine room. The average depth given to the drip is 40mm. This value is the optimum value for the tools to work smoothly. If the depth exceeds considerably, it will become difficult for the tool to work. It will also cause spring back effect if exceeds beyond 60mm.

For pedestrian safety, the gap between the side reference line from ground on the fender and the fender end towards the dip area should be lesser than 50mm.

A Pillar mounting.

Even though the surface is curved, we must provide a flat surface for the mounting hole. A flat surface is created at the region of hole by giving a flat emboss.

Sill area mounting

The sill area mounting is the connection of the fender to the bottom portion of the vehicle. Here also the approach is like the previous ones for providing mounting holes.

Bumper mounting

This is the mounting which comes at the front side of the fender, and it provides connection between the fender and front bumper.

Baffle mounting

This is the mounting that comes in the wheel arch area of the fender to fix the baffle. It protects the pedestrians and the vehicle from chipping of particles and debris during motion. Baffles are fixed on the fender using locking clips which is usually made of plastic.

Final design

Conclusion

After thickening, the design of the fender with all the required mountings following the required engineering standards is complete.