Fender Design Challenge

AIM: The objective is to design Drip Area and Mounting points for the Fender and also to provide appropriate attachment points for sill mount, Bumper mount and Drip area.

DESIGN METHODOLOGY :

fig.1 Front side fender

The fender sits above the wheel which protects it from chipping effect of stones and also acts as a connecting point for various extend structures like Hood, Engine Compartment, Drip area, Sill mounting and Bumper mounting.

The Fender used nowadays are half Bumper types which reduce the cost of the sheet metal blank drastically and also provide a considerable weight reduction.

The fender design methodology is vital to ensure proper mounting of the wheel and the engine compartment and two important areas to considered Drip Area and the wheel arch.

WHEEL ARCH

The wheel is aligned inside the fender to reduce the chipping effect and clearance value is specified based on the standard regulations of different regions based on the road drive considerations.

DRIP AREA

fig2. Drip area of fender

1.Drip area allows to connect of the fender with the engine compartment and it is a protruding flange from the fender skin.

2. Based on the cowl part and front headlamp drip area is designed and usually has mounting points with suitable forward and rearward clearance from the car line.

3. Considering the Tool workability factor the depth of the flange is limited within 40mm and clearance of 10mm is ensured for the engine room

4. The notable consideration while providing Flange length is to Avoid the visibility of the consumers in the engine room.

5. The L shape bracket is provided below the drip area to avoid the spring-back effect.

MOUNTING POINTS

1. Mounting points are provided with suitable emboss.

2. A flat surface emboss with mounting points hole which has a minimum of 5mm surface around it is ensured.

3. The position of mounting points depend on the counterpart and the mounting points should have smooth curvature cut for the feasible manufacturing.

Flat face emboss for A-pillar Mounting

The mounting points provided in this design apart from the drip area are

1. Bumper mounting

2. sill Mounting

3. Drip area mounting

4. Mounting point for baffles

fig3. all the mounting regions of fender

OPERATIONS USED :

As we are given with the fender skin part we have to design its Body mounting region, Baffle region, Bumper mounting region, Sill mounting region and body mounting region with the help of operations given in CATIA. The command used in CATIA are:

1.Parallel

2. Spit/Trim

3. connect

4.Join

5. Extrude

6. Extract/ Multiple Extract.

7.Project

8. Sweep

9. Offset

10. Edge fillet/ Shape fillet

11. Blend

12. Extrapolate

13. Thickness

After obtaining the fender skin. The drip area is calculated and the flange is designed as per the design considerations along with the mounting areas.

the final model of fender after given all the operations and thickness of 0.75 mm.

CONCLUSION :

Thus the front fender developed in CATIA with the mounting structure using proper design guidelines.