Fender Design

FENDER DESIGN USING CATIA

A fender is the curved portion of the car’s body that sits over and houses the wheels.

The purpose of a fender is pretty simple. Its purpose is to keep mud, rocks, and other road debris from being thrown around by the tires. In other words, the fender is a housing for the wheels that keeps road debris contained. If there was nothing covering the wheels, all kinds of debris would be kicked up by the rotating tires.

The fender not only protects your car from sustaining damage from road debris but it prevents this debris from being thrown up at other vehicles on the road. This is why vehicles with large, oversized tires are often required by law to install fender flares.

The front fenders are separate components whereas the rear fenders are integrated with the body sides.

There are two different types of fender garnish available and they are

1. FULL BUMPER
2. HALF BUMPER

TYPES OF FENDERS:

1. FULL BUMPER:

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

Fig 1.1.1 Full bumper.

2. HALF BUMPER:

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.

Fig 1.2.1 Half bumper.

MOUNTING REGIONS OF BUMPER:

Fig 2.1 Mounting regions of bumper

The different mounting areas are

• A-PILLAR MOUNTING
• BODY MOUNTING
• SILL MOUNTING
• BUMPER MOUNTING
• DRIP AREA MOUNTING

These are joined using fasteners and not brackets, thereby improving the “NVH Factor” (Noise, Vibration, Harshness).

THE GIVEN MASTER SKETCH.

Fig 3.1 Master sketch.

Considering the above design constrains we have to design the drip area. Embosses are provided to increase strength, corners of the flanges are smoothened to ease of the production. Uniform wall thickness of 0.75mm.

• Design Consideration for drip area are150mm distance from front end of the fender and the gap is filled with headlamp 200mm distance from rear end of the fender and the gap is filled with wiper motor assembly.
• Initially 3-degree angle and 9mm length is given while creating a drip area because the engine component should not be visible from outside.
• The depth of the drift should be between 40 to 60mm. If the depth exceeds from 60mm then forming is not feasible due to spring back and wrinkles.

Fig 4.1 DRIP AREA SIDE VIEW

Fig 4.2 DRIP AREA TOP VIEW

OTHER MOUNTINGS

The mountings for Bumper, A-Pillar, Flush and Sill areas were designed according to the engineering standards by providing adequate relief for producibility.

Fig 4.3 BUMPER MOUNTING REGION

Fig 4.4 A-PILLAR MOUNTING REGION

Fig 4.5 FLUSH MOUNT REGION

Fig 4.6 SILL MOUNT REGION

Embossing was provided on the mountings to strengthen them during fastening. Industry standard Fillets, reliefs and design constraints were applied to ensure producibility of the part.

Fig 5.1 FENDER FRONT VIEW

Fig 5.2 FENDER REAR VIEW

CONCLUSION

Thus, the Drip Area, Bumper mount region, A-pillar mount region and Sill mount area were designed for the Fender from the styling surface provided.