Fender Design Challenge
AUTOMOTIVE FRONT FENDER DESIGN
AIM:- To Design Drip Area, Sill Mount Area, Body Mount Area, A-Piller Mount Area, Bumper Mounting Area with the help of using fender skin data shared by the styling team.
Introduction:-
FENDER:-
A fender is part of a car that protects and frames its wheel and keeps mud from splashing it. Its main purpose is to prevent debris, rocks, mud, liquids, sand, and other road debris from getting thrown in the air while the tires rotate. The fender is typically referred to as the front panel that covers the front wheel, and the quarter panel typically refers to the rear panel that covers the wheel that also includes the roof pillar. The below image shows a fender and quarter panel on a car The top half of the image is the fender or front fender. The bottom half of the image shows the quarter panel or rear fender.
Types of fender
The type of the fender is based upon the area covered i,e., full fender type and half fender type.
- Full fender type
- Half fender type
Full fender type:-
The full fender type is the traditional type of fender where more material consumption is observed. This type is used in hold old design of automobiles where it increases the overall weight and thus reduces performance. The maintenance is also relatively more due to more surface.
Half fender type:-
The half type is a modern design where less material consumption is observed, so productivity increases by reducing the size of the blank and thus providing more performance. The maintenance is also relatively low compared to the full bumper type.
Design Parameters
The front fender is manufactured as a separate part, this is then mounted on the body of the car, for this, the front fender has 5 mounting points that can differ from OEM to another OEM.
- Drip Area
- Sill Area
- A-Piller area
- Body Mount Area
- Bumper Mount Area
Drip Area:-
Drip area mounting is an important part of the fender. The mounting is attached to the engine compartment of the car. The fender drip area is mounted via weld nuts to the engine compartment A min of 150 mm from the front side and 300 mm or less can be kept on the rear side. The total length of drip area from the top of the fender should be less than 40 mm, This is to avoid the spring back during the manufacturing. The edge of the mounting should be at least 10mm away from engine components. To use the darts to increase the strength of the mounting.
A-Pillar Area:-
The A-pillar area mounting depends upon the A-Pillar of the car. The mounting can also be provided with ribs to strengthen the part. This mounting is critical in design as it has to be mounted on A-Pillar properly. ;-
Sill Area:-
The sill mount area is also an important mounting part. This mounting point is basically on the bottom of the fender. The mounting part is firmly attached to the sill.
Bumper area:-
Bumper mounting is placed at the mating of headlight position, this also has a flange with a hole for mountings. It may consist of one or two bolting holes.
Cowl Area:-
Sometimes fender is also provided with the cowl area mounting. This mounting is on the top side of the fender.
Design procedure:-
Input:- We have the outer skin of the fender as our input.
DESIGN O DRIP AREA:-
Creating drip area fallowing the given master section
DESIGN OF SILL MOUNTING AREA
BUMPER MOUNT AREA:-
A-PILLAR MOUNTING AREA:-
BAFFLE MOUNTING
For improvement of NVH in the car, usually, a baffle is mounting on the fender of the car. It is mounted on the wheel arch area.
OUTPUT
CONCLUSION
We have developed a front fender with mounting points following the design parameters and master section.