Fender Design Challenge

Fender Design :

Fender is  the part of an automobile, motor cycle or other 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 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, and can throw objects into the air at other vehicles or pedestrians in front of the vehicle.

 TYPES OF FENDER

• Full Bumper type
• Half Bumper type

 

Full Bumper type
This type of fender is used in olden days, it is no more in use due to its heavyweight of the structure and consumes more raw material in manufacturing.

Half Bumper Type
Half Bumper Type fenders are widely used now, due to its mini size and the scrap or wastage is less compared to the full bumper type.

Manufacturing process

The manufacturing of the fender majorly involves these operations.

1.Embossing
2.Bending
3.Cutting and Blanking

Embossing

Embossing is a metal forming process for producing raised or sunken designs or relief in sheet material using matched male and female roller dies, theoretically with no change in metal thickness, or by passing sheet or a strip of metal between rolls of the desired pattern.

Bending

Metal bending is a process by which metal can be deformed when applying force to the subject, which causes it to bend at an angle and form the anticipated shape, which often results in it being in a ‘V’ or a ‘U’ shape. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. The force on the work piece can be mechanical, pneumatic or hydraulic.

Cutting and Blanking

Cutting processes are those in which a piece of sheet metal is separated by applying a great enough shearing force to cause the material to fail.

Blanking is a steel manufacturing process in which a flat, geometric shape is created by feeding a coil of sheet metal into a press and die. In this process, the blank is punched out from the large metal sheet.

Fender is mounted basically on 5 important regions. They are
1. Drip Area
2. A-Pillar Mounting Area
3. Sill Mounting Area
4. Bumper Mounting Area
5. Baffle Mounting Area

1. Drip Area

The area at which the fender gets attached to the engine housing through fasteners. It is the major mounting for the fender. Mountings at the drip area are designed leaving a clearance of 200mm from the back of the fender for the cowl setup. And clearance of 150mm from the front of the fender for a headlamp housing unit.

             

2. A-Pillar Mounting Area

This Mounting region is located near the cowl of the vehicle where the fender is fastened with the bottom edge of the windshield. This mounting is covered with the side rear-view mirror.

3. Sill Mounting Area

The area at which the bottom of the fender gets connected to the floor near the bottom edge of the door. The Embossed sill mounting of the fender is attached with the fasteners.

4. Bumper Mounting Area

The bumper mounting region is located beneath the bumper. The fender gets attached before the installation of the bumper. After fixing the fender with fasteners the bumper will cover the bumper mounting.

5. Baffle Mounting Area

In this region, the baffle gets installed to the fender with the help of clips which holds the baffle with the fender along the wheel arch.

Conclusion

The Fender is designed with the necessary mounting points considering the design parameters.