Mid-Surface Meshing of a Plastic component with varying Thickness 

Mid-Surface Meshing of a Plastic component with varying Thickness

Aim- This Challenge aims to clear the model of any geometric errors and extraction of a Mid Surface for a plastic component with varying thickness and mesh that surface under the given quality Criteria and maintaining a Good mesh all through the Component.

Procedure:

Step 1: Import the Model and apply the perimeter length as 1mm so that we can inspect the model in a much clearer way and eliminate the Geometrical errors. Make sure the model is Oriented in the correct direction and study the model so that you will have a better idea while taking the Mid-Surface.

Step 2: Once the Geometrical errors are cleared the Mid must be taken for each of the surfaces using the commands Faces- Middle and Offset for parts with uniform thickness. Once the Mid Surfaces are taken you will have to extend them to the corresponding surfaces so that they are connected as in the Model

As you can see how the Middle can be taken and extended and how the mid surface for the Outer support will look like once the Mid Surface is Taken.

Step 3: For sections with varying thickness we will have to use the Command Curves Middle and form a Middle curve using which we can create a surface. And once the surface is created we will have to divide it into the sections based on the varying thickness and apply the correct thickness to the correct section.

As you can see how the surfaces are formed for parts with varying crosssection using the Middle curves and New Face Command.

Step 4: Once all the surfaces are created and extended, please apply the material thickness as the Plastic component will have different thicknesses in different regions and you can check the Mid Surface if you change the transparency of the Parent surface and view them in PID view.

On the Left image, you can see the complete Mid surface of the Bottlecap and on the right image, you can see how the parent surface and Mid Surface look as the parent surface is Transparent. Also in the image, you can see the thread region where we would have used Curves middle to take mid surface for that region.

Step 5: Before meshing makes sure you separate the model to small parts so that you can capture the mesh in a much better manner and also make sure to remove the construction lines.

The Orange lines represent the lines that have been removed and the Yellow lines show the New partitions that we created so that we get a better flow of Mesh.

Step 6: Once all the above steps are completed upload the Quality criteria and Mesh the parts individually and make sure you can get a good flow in the Mesh. Use Command Mesh Generation -Best and reconstruction and you can also use Split, Swap, and join to manually get a Good flow. Avoid Trias at the construction lines and Perimeter lines and make sure that Trias facing different directions are apart from each other.

The above is the Complete Meshed Model of the Bottle Cap.

Learning Outcomes :

1. Checking the Geometry for errors and Clearing them using Auto Fix and Clearing them manually.
2. Creating Mid-Surface using the Offset tool and Faces Middle.
3. Creating Middle curves and extracting the Mid-Surface for areas with varying thickness.
4. using a Variation of cones project and Middle curves to create Mid surfaces.
5. Using Copy Transform rotate to patter similar parts in a Circular region.
6. Meshing the part and clearing the quality using Ansa commands.
7. Avoiding Triangles in the perimeter and also avoiding opposite facing triangles.
8. Using Transparency to view and check the Mid surface and the parent part.

Conclusion:

A Middle surface for a plastic part of varying thickness was created and meshed according to the given quality criteria. The Thickness for the created parts has been updated as per the thickness of the Parent Model. Please find the Complete meshed model under the Lock View Final_Meshed_Model