Switch Bezel Design

OBJECTIVE

To design the Switch Bezel Plastic component using the given Class-A surface.

PROCEDURE

1. Defining a Tooling axis for the Class-A surface

1. Step 1: Check the connectivity of the surface and ensure there is no gap in the class A surface. The boundary command helps by highlighting the boundary of all the edges thus we can visually check for gaps in the class A surface.
2. Step 2: We perform a draft analysis on class A and check the angles of the surface we think will create problems in tooling.
3. Step 3: We observe the component from all three principal axes to get an optimum tooling axis direction. In this case, the Z axis is the optimum tooling axis.
4. Step 4: Next we create a dummy tooling axis along the X and Y directions. We select the base surface and create a point in the midpoint of the surface. At this point, we create an axis system and create two positioned sketches on the YZ and XZ planes.
5. Step 5: In the Sketcher workbench, for both YZ and XZ planes, we intersect Class A and the plane to get the surface we think will create problems in molding.
6. Step 6: Using the line command we extend the parts of the curve which have small angles with the dummy tooling axis and might create a problem in molding.
7. Step 7: We use the bisecting line command to bisect the angular edges through the Point on the base surface to get the dummy tooling axis along the Y direction.
8. Step 8: We similarly, create a dummy tooling axis along the X direction as well. In the X direction since we only have a single surface so we create a line at a draft angle of 5 degrees.
9. Step 9: We now again create a line through the point bisecting the two dummy tooling axes to get the main tooling axis.

2. Creating Class B surface

1. Step 1: The class A surface has fillets and they will create errors in offset so we first divide and assign colors to the simple surfaces namely the Arm Rest (Blue), Wall Surface (Cyan), and Base Surface (Saffron) that we need to extract.
2. Step 2:We create Arm Rest Surface geometrical surface and start with the Arm Rest surface and use the untrim command to get the parent surface which we offset as per the thickness of the component i.e, 2.5mm below the class A surface.
3. Step 3: We create Wall Surface geometrical surface and start with the three wall surfaces and use the untrim and extrapolate commands to get the parent surfaces respectively which we offset at 2.5mm to get the required surface.
4. Step 4: We then create a Base Surface geometrical surface and untrim and extrapolate the base surface to get the parent surfaces which we offset at 2.5mm to get the required surface.
5. Step 5: We then use the Trim command in a new geometrical set to join the above three surfaces into one.
6. Step 6: We create a new geometrical set for fillets and to measure fillets we extract filleted surfaces from class A and untrim them and measure the edges to get the exact fillet radius values. The fillets are then created to get the final B surface.

3. Creating Class C surface

1. Step 1: We use the Multiple Extract command to extract the boundary of the class A surface. We extract the boundaries on either side independently and smoothen them using the smooth curve operation.
2. Step 2: We perform the sweep operation with the draft direction along the tooling axis with a draft angle of 3 degrees outwards for both boundaries.
3. Step 3: We see that the two sweeps thus created have gaps and so we extrapolate both the ends of the two sweeps respectively and trim them to get the final C Surface.

4. Creating the hollow surface part

1. Step 1: We use the trim operation to cut and join the Class B, and C surfaces into one body to get the final surface body.

5. Publication of the Tooling axis, Class A, B, and C surfaces

1. Step 1: We select the tooling axis, class A, B, and C surface from the tree and go to Tools->Publication to publish them.

6. Creating the final solid component

1. Step 1: We switch to the part design workbench and use the Closesurface feature to create the solid part out of the hollow surface body.

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7. Draft analysis on the final component.

1. Step 1: We open the draft analysis command box and select the compass and drag and align it with the tooling axis and lock it.
2. Step 2: We analyze the color scale and input 2.9 degrees as the draft value and save the analysis.

TREE STRUCTURE

DRAFT ANALYSIS

1. For Class-A surface

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2. For the final plastic component

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