Week 8 - Challenge 3 - Switch Bezel Design

Objective :

• To design switch bezel as per automotive OEM Standard.
• Create B Class and C Class and tooling axis.
• Converting close surface into the solid inside part workbench and provide the thickness of 2.5mm.
• Performing draft analysis to verify the creation of the Tooling axis and C Class surface.

Software :

• CATIA V5 (Generative Shape Design)

Abstract:

In this project, I design a Switch Bezel using Catia v5. I received input as Class A Surface. I Check the direction to eject the tool based on the component design. Later I checked whether all faces that intersected will clear the direction based on the tooling axis. I started working on the Draft Analysis tool to check if our tooling direction clears the path for easy removal of material from the tool. After that, I go class B creation using Advance tools from the surface followed by class C creation using the sweep command. after design A B C class surface, converting close surface into solid inside the part workbench.

Design Methodology with images:

Procedure for creating Tooling Axis

1. A Reference Point is created along the Surface zero and new Axis system is created
2. The X Direction along the Class A and Y direction along the Class A were used to create Tooling direction
3. Finally the Tooling axis is created by bisecting the two lines and it is published. Class A Surface as input using surface operation commands Class B is developed
4. The tooling Axis determines the direction of Class C boundary swept with draft direction.
5. When viewing from tooling direction normal all the parts that are drafted should be visible so it gives an rough idea to determine product manufacturing in Injection molding.

Procedure for B Surface Creation

next step is to design B surface for the input which is usually the surface where all engineering aspects and support creations are done.

• The B surface Creation is performed using surface operations in CATIA which is an offset from Class A with dimension proportional to the thickness of the part
• In Switch bezel the B surface is offset 2.5mm from the input which is the thickness of the part
• The B surface is an extrapolated surface compared to A surface and forms the bottom skin of the part

Procedure for C Surface Creation

• The Next step is to from the C surface which is an intermediate surface between A and B and is used to give the closed surface appearance to the design
• The C Surface is swept using the profile as boundary line of Class A which is the Guide curve with a subtype along draft direction.
• The Direction of the sweep is the tooling direction formed earlier
• The draft angle for the sweep operation is provided which is 3 Degree and surface is swept for length above the thickness of the specified part
• The C surface is refined using smooth Curve options to remove the complexity and patches along the swept surface
• Finally the Class A and Class C surfaces are joined together and connexity of surfaces should be less than 0.003mm and the surfaces are merged.

Procedure for Closed Body Creation

• The merged surface is then trimmed with B surface to form the closed surface.
• The Closed surface is then validated to find the irregularities along the edges and imperfections along the edges were then corrected using operation like extrapolate and surface trim
• This Closed surface is the outer skin of the switch bezel and finally the part is formed by Closed Surface in part design workbench
• The final part is measured to validate the uniform thickness of the part especially along the filleted edges.