Week 8 - Challenge 3 - Switch Bezel Design

Aim:

To create the base bracket plastic component through the given Class-A surface and at the end performing the draft analysis on the mode.

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 intersect 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 to class B creation using Advanced 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.

Objective:

• To design switch bezel as per automotive OEM standard.
• Create B class and C class and tooling axis.
• Converting the closed surface into the solid inside part workbench and providing the thickness of 2.5mm.
• Performing draft to verify the creation of the tooling axis and C class surface.

Software:

CATIA V5( Generative Shape Design)

Design Methodology with images:

Procedure for creating Tooling Axis

• A Reference point is created along the surface zero and a new Axis system is created.
• The X- Direction Along the Class A and Y direction along the Class A were used to create Tooling direction.
• 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.
• The tooling axis determines the direction of the class C boundary swept with draft direction.
• When viewed from tooling direction normally all the parts that are drafted should be visible so it gives a rough idea to determine product manufacturing in injection molding.

Procedure for B- surface Creation

• The 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 the switch bezel the B surface is offset 2.5 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 form the C surface which is an intermediate surface between A and B that is used to give the closed surface appearance to the design.
• The C surface is swept using the profile as the boundary line of class A which is the guide curve with a subtype along the draft direction.
• The direction of the sweep is the tooling direction formed earlier.
• The draft angle for the sweep operation is provided which is 2 deg and the 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 0.003.

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.

Procedure for Draft Analysis Procedure

• The part created has to be changed to material mode in display frame
• Then by enabling compass definition the axis system is pan along the direction of the part and aligned in line with the tooling direction
• Lock Direction is applied that fixes the compass and then the mode dialog box is formed by snapping at any point on the part
• The Color Codes are classified and Draft Angle are applied
• Then the Running point analysis is used to hover around the part to analyze the permissible draft angles and the analysis is saved

TREE STRUCTURE:

Conclusion: Finally completed the given challenge sucessfully.