Fender Design Challenge

OBJECTIVE:

               Main objective of this challenge to create a fender design with fender mounting area like Drip area, Bumper mounting region, Sill mount region, A-Pillar mount region and splash cover or wheel well mount regions for the given fender skin or styling surface.

FENDER:

                Fender is the part of an automobile.  Motor cycle or other vehicle body that frames a wheel well( 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.

                Stocky material, 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 s 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.

                Fender are either made of steel or thermoplastics.

                                                                     

                                                                                                            Figure: Car Front Fender 

                Fender are either made of steel or thermoplastics.

TYPES  OF FENDER:

                There are two types of fender found in the automobile industries. Its based on the weight and area reduction on the fender and their mounting areas.

1.                                 Full Bumper type
2.                                 Half Bumper type

A. FULL BUMPER TYPE:

                For the full bumper type I have presented some good examples to show how it looks, follow the figure.

                                                                             

                                                                                                        Figure : Full Bumper Type

B. HALF BUMPER TYPE:

                Half bumper type are used in new generation vehicles  where in the weight of the part is reduced and also the cost.  Here the scrap can be saved during material stamping or cutting process by using the half bumper design.

               Here are example to understand the design,  follow the figure.

                                        

                                                                                                 Figure : Half Bumper Type

DESIGN CONSDERATION:

•                 Emboss are provided to increase strength
•                 The corners of the flanges are smoothened to ease the producibility of part.
•                 Fillet of 2 to 3mm is provided to avoid the sharp corners and edges.
•                 Cut-outs are provided at certain regions in order to save material as possible.
•                 Uniform wall thickness of is 0.75mm is maintained.

DESIGN DATA PROVIDED FOR DRIP AREA:

FENDER MOUNTING AREAS:

                The following bumper mounting areas are considered to the design.

1.                 Bumper
2.                 Drip
3.                 A pillar
4.                 Sill
5.                 Cowl

a. BUMPER MOUNTING AREA:

                                                      

                                                                            Figure : Bumper Mounting Area

b. DRIP AREA:

                This region is mounter below the hood inner panel which needs to be in flush when the hood is in closed condition and also there should be very less gaps.

                Th drip area is either spot welded or in some cases bolted down via self-tapping screws.

                                                                                         

                                                           

                                                                                                     Figure : Drip Area

c. A-PILLAR MOUNT AREA:

                Here this region is mounted to the A-Pillar frame of the chassis so that it is rigidly attached to the body of the car.

                                                                 

                                                                                           Figure : A-Pillar Mount Area

d. SILL MOUNTING AREA:

                                                                         

                                                                                           Figure : Sill Mount Area

e. COWL MOUNT AREA:

                                                                                          

                                                                                        Figure : Cowl Mount Area

FINAL FENDER DESIGN:

                                                                            

                                                                                           

                                                                                     

CONCLUSION:

         In this challenge car fender is designed successfully with the help of provided master sketch for drip area, and creating the bumper mount area, sill area, A-pillar mount area and cowl area of the fender.