Week 9 - Project 1 - Door Trim Lower with Engineering Features

DESIGN OF DOOR TRIM LOWER WITH HEAT STAKES AND LOCATORS:

AIM: To create the Door Trim Lower Plastic component through the given Class-A surface by creating a tooling axis meeting the requirements of the draft angle, Create the Heat Stakes and the Locators considering the design rules mentioned in the video for the door applique and to perform the Draft Analysis on the solid model at the end.

GIVEN INPUTS:

The Class A surface of the Door Trim is given to us as an input which is quality checked for any open profiles inside the geometry using the "Boundary" command before starting the construction of Class B and C surfaces. Along with the Class A, 16 points are given as inputs which are used for positioning the Heat Stakes.

TOOLING AXIS CREATION:

Tooling axis is the direction in which the mold pulls apart. It is necessary to create a tooling axis to give draft to the component. Tooling axis is generally created using the "Bisecting Method" to acquire the required draft. For the given Class A surface, the best tooling direction for the component is chosen by considering the tooling of the final product. It is chosen in such a way that the component is cleared with minimum tooling.

BISECTING METHOD:

In Bisecting Method, an axis is created by bisecting the lines that lie on the opposite walls or faces of the surface which can be done by using intersection of the of the Class A with the plane of intersection. The walls or faces that may probably create a problem during tooling are selected for intersection with the plane.

For this Class A surface, an axis is created in the direction of Y-axis as the component clears tooling in this direction which can be observed by looking at the Class A in various orientations. The maximum number of faces of the surface are visible in this direction.

A surface of Class A is extracted and a point is created on the surface. Then a line is created in Y direction with the point as input. The line formed is the Tooling axis of the component.

DRAFT: It is the degree of taper that is incorporated into the side walls and cores of the die cast tool to aid in the removal of a part. Primarily, they function to reduce the friction between the part and the tool as it is ejected. Without draft angles, parts can be stripped, dented, or get stuck in the tool.

The Draft Analysis command enables you to detect if the part you drafted will be easily removed. In the case of plastic injection molded parts it also allows the designer to see if there is enough draft on the part to ensure that it can be correctly grained.

CLASS A DRAFT ANALYSIS:

Draft Analysis is performed on the Class A Surface using the Draft Analysis command in CATIA after creating the Tooling axis. It is performed to check if the surface clears the tooling. The compass is used to define the current draft direction. It is aligned with the Tooling Axis to define the draft direction and the surface is selected to perform the analysis.

The results of the draft analysis are show in the below pictures:

From the pictures, we can see that a minimum draft angle of 3 degrees is maintained overall for the Class A surface.

SOLID BODY CONSTRUCTION:

The Class B and C surfaces are created with reference to the Class A surface and are then trimmed together to form a closed surface. A thickness of 2.5mm is given for the component.

Then it is created into a solid body using the "Close Surface" tool in Part Design workbench.

CLASS B:

CLASS C:

CLOSED SURFACE:

SOLID BODY:

B SIDE ATTACHMENT FEATURES:

The attachment features such as Locators and Heat Stakes are created on the B side of the solid body following the design rules and are then assembeled to the main body.

4 WAY LOCATOR:

2 WAY LOCATOR:

HEAT STAKES:

DOOR TRIM WITH LOCATORS & HEAT STAKES:

DRAFT ANALYSIS ON SOLID MODEL:

Draft Analysis is also done for the final Solid Model similar to the anlysis done for Class A surface to check if the body clears the tooling.

The results obtained for the Draft Analysis of solid body in quick analysis mode can be seen below:

SOLID MODEL IN VARIOUS ORIENTATIONS:

The above image shows the completed design in various orientations.