Fender Design Challenge

Objective:

The objective is to Design a Front Fender from the given Class A Surfacing with Drip Area, Bumper Mount, Baffel Mount, Sill Mount, and A-Pillar Mount.

Introduction:

Fender is the American English term for the part of an automobile, motorcycle or other vehicle body that frames a wheel well. Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks, liquids, and other road spray from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire. Fenders are typically rigid and can be damaged by contact with the road surface.

Sticky materials, such as mud, may adhere to the smooth outer tire surface, while smooth loose objects, such as stones, can become temporarily embedded in the tread grooves as the tire rolls over the ground. These materials can be ejected from the surface of the tire at high velocity as the tire imparts kinetic energy to the attached objects. For a vehicle moving forward, the top of the tire is rotating upward and forward can throw Objects into the air at other vehicles or pedestrians in front of the vehicle. Fender is a front outer side member of a car, which covers the wheel side. It has so many small features with ups and downs.

The Importance of Car Fenders:

• Fenders are an intricate sheet of metal covering the wheel well of your car.
• Fenders are designed in a manner to provide resistance against wind and other roadside debris.
• When you travel on rough terrains your vehicle might get minor scratches and dents which look no better. Frequent road bumps can cause your cars paint to chip off which needs a paint job done.
• The car fenders are located on either side of the front and rear wheels. The front car fenders begin where the front door hinges run and end just before the bumper. The rear car fenders begin where the back doors close and terminate before the back bumpers.

Mountings:

Inorder to fix the Fender, Mountings are essential. In our design we classified these mountings in 5 areas, namely

• Drip Area Mounting.
• Bumper Mounting.
• Sill Mounting.
• A-Pillar Mounting.
• Splash / Baffel Mounting.

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

Design Criteria:

• Embosses are provided to increase the strength.
• Smooth curves are designed for easy manufacturing of panel.
• Ribs are provided to drip area mount to give structural support and extra strength.
• Maintain extra 10 mm from the flat surface for the fastner holes.
• All fillets should maintain 3 + thickness mm radius in most regions.
• Thickness of fender is 0.75 mm.

Designing:

Drip Area Mounting:

• It is the most important mounting unit of a fender. It is connected with the engine compartment and therefore a lot of design constraints are to be followed while designing the drip area,
• It should have sufficient clearance from the front and rear end of the fender to accommodate the Cowl mounting region and the Headlamp housing unit respectively as shown in the figure.

• Drip Area should 150 mm from the front side and 200 from the mirror area
• From the master section we have optimize values for draft, drawing and assembly point of view. such as Distance from engine comportment is 10mm, Height of fender etc.

Bumper Mounting:

Sill Mounting:

A-Pillar Mounting:

Splash / Baffel Mounting:

Views of Fender design:

Conclusion:

Thus the Drip Area, Bumper Mount, Cowl Mount, Sill Mount, and A-Pillar Mount were designed for the Fender using NX CAD.