Designing and Modeling the Front Fender of a car using CATIA V5

Introduction

In British English, the fender is called the wing, this may refer to either the front or rear fenders. However, in modern uni-body vehicles, rear fenders may also be called quarter panels.

In modern Indian and Sri Lankan English usage, the fender is called a mudguard.

Fender is the part of an automobile, motorcycle or other vehicle body, installed over the wheel, which frames a wheel well (the fender underside).

Its primary purpose is to "fend off" sand, mud, rocks, liquids, and other road spary from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire and that scratches the coat of the vehicle. It could cause a vehicle's coat to rust and chip off, and would have to repaint the car every now and then, apart from having to wash it more often than is necessary.

Nowadays consider for aerodynamic purposes also. Fenders are designed to minimize wind resistance and make the vehicle more aerodynamic.

Fenders are also a safety feature. In the event of a front-end collision, the edges of the fender are designed to bend so that the engine is as protected as possible. This is why minor accidents are sometimes referred to as fender-benders. The modern materials of fenders are designed to crumple during a crash. By managing crash energy and directing it away from the passenger cabin and engine comportment, a vehicle's occupants are kept safe.

Designing and modeling of front fender

Front fender panels are located on the sides of each front wheel. These panels typically cover the sides of the headlights to the hinge of the driver and passenger doors on the A-pillar. They run vertically from the hood to the wheel well. Front fender is of two types. They are,

• Full bumper type
• Half bumper type

Full bumper type

For the understanding, some examples of full bumper type fender is shown in figure.1a&b

Figure 1a&b: Full bumper type

Half bumper type

Half bumper type is preferred over the other type because during manufacturing, the material should be used in a more efficient way to reduce the production cost significantly. Here the material usage is less when compared with full bumper type and so the weight is also less when compare with full bumper type.

Some examples are shown in figure.2a&b, to understand about the half bumper type.

Figure 2a&b: Half bumper type

Front fender consists of 5 regions which helps to mount the fender with the car.

• Body
• Drip
• Bumper
• Cowl
• Sill

Fasteners are used to mount the fender with the car body

Drip area

Figure 3: Master section

It is a critical area, where the fender is mounted with the hood of the car. A master sketch is used here to design the drip area as it has many criteria’s that is to be followed while modeling.

Figure 4: Reference for clearance

The drip area is to be positioned in such a way that a necessary clearance should be maintained from the ends, with the reference of the above figure the clearance is provided. However, the image shows the minimum clearance values, the clearance may change based on the size of the car, parent car and other factors.

Other regions like Bumper, cowl are designed for mounting the fender with the car with the help of fasteners to reduce the NVH factor.

Here the following images shows the mounts, that are created to connect the fender with the car.

Figure 5: Drip mount area

Bumper mount is used to mount the fender with the bumper region of the car

Figure 6: Bumper mount region

Cowl mount is used to mount the fender with the A-pillar region of the car

Figure 7: A-pillar / Cowl mount region

Sill mount is used to mount the fender with the sill portion of the car body

Figure 8: Sillmount area

Splash cover mount in fender is used to mount the splash cover with the fender

Figure 9: Splash cover / Baffle mount

Figure 10: Fender with the mounts

Figure 11: Fender

Commands used: Reference plane, Extract, parallel curve, Split, connect curve, project, extrapolate, join, sweep, fillet, sketch, fill line, corner, trim, healing, thicksurface, pocket etc. are some of the commands used.

Thus, the front fender is designed and modeled.