Week 8 - Challenge 2 - Switch Bezel Design

Theory:

Switch Bezels in car are parts which contains switches and controls for different functions like Window control, Door lock/Unlock,Media and Temperature controls.

This A-surface of this part is derived from scanning a clay model and B,C surfaces with other engineering features are developed as per specifications and inputs.

This challenge is to create an closed solid body by forming the B and C surfaces from the given A-surfaces. Draft analysis of both surface and the solid body needs to be done to determine the moldability of the part.

Analysis:

Take the Thickness of the component to be 2.5 mm.

TREE for whole Objectives:

Objective 1: Create a Tooling Axis for the Class A surface.

TREE:

Procedure:

• Create a point on class A surface with the aim to move the main tool for component creation on the base surface.
• Mask an axis over the point created with the same directions as the main axis.
• Using Intersect command from Generative Shape design select the YZ plane as the first element and the class A surface as the second element.
• After creating the intersecting lines select the Line command and join the vertices which show the most possible draft angle manufacturable .
• Similarly select the second axis and create intersecting lines but since only one side is available create a sketch of a line for the intersecting surfaces and make the draft line at an angle of 3 degree.
• Bisect those two lines over the axis point we created.

Using bisect command

Objective 2: DRAFT ANALYSIS of Class A surface:

Procedure:

• After Tooling Axis Select the Feature Draft Analysis option from the Insert Option.
• Select the element to analyze.
• Next click on Use the compass to define the new current draft direction option and make it align with the tooling axis by dragging it to the axis.
• If the color appears blue just click the invert option on the right side of the draft direction axis button.

Objective 3: Create a CLASS B SURFACE :

TREE:

TOP, BASE & WALLS:

Using the Extract option select the first set of ribs from the Class A surface.

Then use the untrim surfaces command to restore the surfaces up to the limit.

After that click the Extrapol command to extract the surface in the curvature direction.

Finally use the trim command to cut the surfaces to get the desired output.

Set an offset to set a thickness of 2.5mm.

Similarly, do the same process for other parts as well.

We get the following parts.

Here Green color depicts the top surface with Class A extracted and brown depicts the offset surface.

Now all the parts are trimmed to get a Class B surface.

All the fillets are given according to the intersection lines created while the tooling axis was created.

For the fillets add the offset value we selected for giving the thickness of the body for inward thickness add the number but for outward thickness subtract the number to create a uniform thickness all around the shape.

Objective 4: Creating a CLASS C SURFACE:

TREE STRUCTURE for creating Class C surface.

Select the boundary option and click on the boundary of the class A surface to create a sketch of the boundary.

Create two Surface boundaries as while creating a smooth curve the lines will not go according to draft and create error in final part.

Use Smooth curves to avoid vertices and use curvature continiuty.

Using sweep command select with draft direction option and set a 3-degree draft to create a sweep of the boundary in Z-axis with angle.

Select the appropriate direction to get the draft.

While giving sweep sue the second length to sweep in both directions to avoid any surface irregularities creating error while joining the components.

Extarpolate the two surface ends and trim them.

Objective 5: Create a THICK SWITCH BEZEL:

Finally Trim all the elements with each other in the final Complete Bezel.

Using the Closed Surface option create a solid part of the bracket.

Objective 6: DRAFT ANALYSIS of the SOLID part:

• Select the element to analyze.
• Next click on Use the compass to define the new current draft direction option and make it align with the tooling axis by dragging it to the axis.

Hence the created accurately with 2.5mm thickness.