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

Draft Analysis report

When a plastic component is made, we can observe a draft angle given on each side from the base that is lesser than 90 degrees. This is because in the criteria of making a plastic material the mold should release the material when finished. if the mold surfaces are 90 degrees the material won't release from the mold because of friction due to contraction of material when cooled.

To resolve this problem we CAD engineers maintain a standard rule to design the plastic mold or die's in such a way that there is no problem while ejecting the plastic component. So a minimum of 3 - 10 degrees of draft angle is given to every plastic component while designing.

Locators work as a 3 - 2 - 1 principle which is basically to fix a component to be machined or to be placed in an ideal position. There are a total of 12 degrees of freedom, 6 rotational and 6 translational.

In this, I need to fix any 11 degrees of freedom permanently and anyone to be clamped or fixed temporarily. In this scenario, Locators come into place. there are 4-way locators, 3-way locators, and more.

Heat staking

This is also a fixing method of a plastic component to another dissimilar or similar surface or metal part. But in this process, both of them are joined together by thermal welding and can not be removed after that. A Boss or a stud is made on the plastic part, which is then protruded onto the opposite part and reformed after the locators fix the part temporarily and then thermal welded on the boss.