How CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE helps in the design of hydroforming-manufactured parts

Posted on January 24, 2021September 23, 2024 by Kiran Makam Setty

Introduction:

There is always a challenge to meet the high expectations of auto and aero industry when it comes to the parts. The suppliers need to maintain industry standard accuracy and precision in these parts. These parts undergo processing to achieve the desired component dimensions keeping their end application in mind.

One has to also go through documentation, various processes and extensive quality checks to deliver as per industry standards due to demand in the projects. To ensure this, one can rely on effective and standard engineering processes. One such process is Hydroforming.

Hydroforming process involves a hollow tube of metal (aluminum) placed inside a negative mold that has the shape to be achieved. A hydraulic pump injects fluid at very high pressure in the inner portion of aluminum tube which causes it to expand until it results in the desired shape.

Sheet Hydroforming: This process was originally patented in the 1950s when it was called hydramolding by Fred Leuthesser, Jr. and John Fox. This process helped to meet the parts supply for auto, aero and other OEMs effectively by easy workability of the process on various metals such as brass, aluminum, stainless steel and low alloy steel. These metals and alloys are lightweight in nature and has high stiffness structurally which is passed on to the finished parts. The hydroforming process can produce complex shapes, stronger, lighter and more robust unibody structures which are predominantly used in parts of automobiles. This process is used in high-end sports car manufacturing industry and in aluminum tubes for bicycle frames.

Advantages:

Hydroforming is better compared to solid stamping for manufacturing complex shapes with concavities (which is impossible or difficult with standard solid die).
Stiffness-to-weight ratio and lower unit cost of hydroformed parts are some of the other benefits when compared to traditional stamped and welded parts.
Generally, cold forming metals like copper, high strength alloys, stainless steel, brass, carbon and aluminum are best suited for hydroforming process.

3DEXPERIENCE CATIA – It helps in achieving the design of parts to be manufactured with hydroforming keeping in mind the process and various industry standards.

The image below shows a typical automotive industry process for car door part. This part is designed using 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA application.

Parts and components are designed with hybrid approach using both surface design and hydro-formed design. One can achieve concepts of surface creation and web creation, detailed design and manufacturing preparation with hydro-formed sheet metal application.

Design Considerations during Design of Rubber Parts

Posted on January 18, 2021September 13, 2024 by Satya Ranjan Dolai

During designing a rubber component, multiple factors need to be taken care of. These factors are as listed: material considerations with required technical specifications and also as per applicability and function, radius and wall thickness, gate location in mould, rib inclusion, mould shrinkage and draft.

Basic Design Aspects (Wall Thickness, Radius, Draft)

While designing rubber components, some basic aspects to adhere to is wall thickness. Most of industry hoses or pipes are made of rubber for carrying some liquid. Where there is liquid flow, it is important to sustain the burst pressure and for that designing right thickness is significant. Smooth flow of the liquid is also important and for that a good amount of radius or curvature can help. Parallelly providing draft helps in smooth ejection of the part as well.

Corner and Edges: In any design, sharp corners should always be avoided as machining in mould would be difficult due to sharp corners and edges. During part ejection too, it results in lot of part defects as well as mould defects.
Undercuts: Sometimes design needs some undercut feature which is an opposite projection of material against tool movement. In rubber components, force ejection can be done up to a certain height for undercut feature. However, the designer should take care of such feature in terms of ejection, long run mould capability, production rate etc.
Holes: If any hole should be placed in the designed body, designer can plan for placing metal insert into the mould itself. There is one thumb rule: the height of the hole should not be more than twice of its diameter and the minimum diameter should be about 1.27mm.

Functional Applicability and Environmental Condition

A designer must consider the functional aspect during a rubber component design. The component should be checked whether it will be responsible for 1) any sealing (then compression factor needs to be considered) 2) transmitting some fluid flow (then smoothness and wall thickness should be taken on priority) 3) providing any structural support (then inclusion of ribs inclusion need to be taken care of). There may be various functional aspects depending on which the designer has to define the design.

For environmental condition, the designed part will come under the impact of any chemical solvent or from air or water. The designer has to check whether the part is under some dynamic stress or not.

Rubber Material Selection

Material selection is one of the most important aspect in designing any elastomer component because only a best suited elastomer can give the right performance with respect to cost. The life span and durability are two other factors which basically depend on material itself.

During material selection, choosing the right elastomer hardness can give the desired result. If the purpose is sealing, then there should be a defined hardness of 70 Shore A. The most common hardness range is 50-80 Shore A. The designer should not always go for very soft or very hard material as the components are being designed with some complicated feature or deep undercut. To account for these features, the component needs the right amount of hardness and for that hardness tester can help.

Moulding Process

For manufacturing rubber components, multiple moulding process are employed. Some of them are compression moulding, blow moulding, injection moulding and transfer moulding.

In compression moulding, material surplus is placed into a cavity calculating the volume of the component and then heat and pressure are applied. Compression moulding is basically chosen for medium hardness compounds with high volume production rate.

Injection moulding is the most automated process in moulding technology. In this process, the material is heated and passed through a flowing state and injected into the cavity with high pressure. Injection moulding is the ideal and commonly used process for mass and high-volume production rate.

How to Create Embossing and Engraving in CATIA V5 and CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE

Posted on January 18, 2021September 13, 2024 by Rajyalakshmi S

Embossing is a metal forming process for producing raised or sunken designs or relief in sheet metal by means of matched male and female roller dies, theoretically with no change in metal thickness, or by-passing sheet or a strip of metal between rolls of the desired pattern.

Steps to create embossing/engraving in CATIA V5:

In the first step, open a blank drawing file from CATIA drafting workbench. In this drafting file, one has to insert the text that needs to be engraved or embossed. Any font size can be chosen and the text is entered which needs to be created on 3D model as shown below.

In the second step, this drawing file should be saved as a .dwg/dxf file type as shown below.

In the third step, the part model to be embossed or engraved can be opened as shown below.

In the fourth step, the text should be pasted into a geometrical set in the part. This can be done by selecting Fit-in-All command in the View tab.

Now the text can be seen in the part specification tree. If the position of the text is not correct, the Translate function or Rotate command can be used.

The Translate and Rotate command can be used as shown below.

In the final step, Pad or Pocket command is chosen to obtain either the embossed or the engraved part.

Part with Embossing:

Part with Engravings:

Steps to create embossing/engraving in CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE:

In the first step, blank drawing file is opened from CATIA native drafting app.

In this drafting file, the text that needs to be engraved or embossed has to be entered. Any front size can be chosen and then the text which you need to create on the 3D model is entered as shown below.

This drafting file is exported as a .dwg/dxf file type shown below.

The part model that needs to be embossed or engraved has to be opened.

Next, Text command is used and is oriented along the curve.

In the final step, Pad or Pocket command is chosen to obtain either embossed or engraved part.

Part with Embossing:

Part with Engravings:

Parametric Modelling in CATIA V5

Posted on January 7, 2021September 13, 2024 by Mohit Aggarwal

The dimensions in a 3D Model have some relationships or interconnections with each other in Parametric Modelling in CATIA V5. If any one of the dimensions is changed in 3D Model, then all other dimensions will also change in the specified ratio.

Key tools used in Parametric Modelling are:

Parameters
Formulas
Design Table

Parameters

Parameters are the characteristics that control different aspects of geometry and features. Parameters could be of different types such as Length, Area, Mass, Boolean and many more.

Parameters are of two categories:

Intrinsic Parameters:

Intrinsic Parameters are created automatically as we create the geometries and features in CATIA V5.

User Parameters:

In Parametric Modelling, the Parameters which user creates for controlling the dimensions and features are called User Parameters.

Formulas

Formulas are the relations between different geometrical entities and parameters. For example, to have Inner Diameter as half of Outer Diameter, a formula can be created as:

Inner Diameter = 0.5 * Outer Diameter.

Design Table

Design Table is a text or .csv (Excel) file which contains different set of input values for parameters called configurations. For example, a company has five variants of a product. A design table can be created in which five configurations of input values of parameters can be entered. Selecting each configuration from design table will result in a different variant of the product.

Steps in Parametric Modelling:

Create 3D Model:

Create the 3D Model as per the drawing provided using different workbenches like Sketcher, Part Design etc. In the below image, a tumbler is modelled. The features used in this tumbler are Pad, Pocket and Edge Fillet.

Now, design intent is to design a tumbler in which the same ratio is maintained for all the other geometrical features for any value of outer diameter of tumbler.

Create Parameters:

Create Parameters for input dimensions. For example, in this tumbler there is only one input parameter i.e., Outer Diameter and rest of the dimensions will automatically get adjusted as per the Outer Diameter. Hence, a Parameter of “length” type named Outer Diameter is created.

Create Formulas:

Now, Formulas need to be created to interlink various dimensions from the Driving Parameters. In this case, the inner diameter, length & edge fillet of tumbler must change as per the outer diameter of the tumbler. Hence, the following formulas are created:

Outer Radius of tumbler is linked with the created parameter Outside Diameter as Outer Radius = Outer Diameter/2.

Similarly, a formula is created to control Inner Diameter of tumbler as: Inner Radius = 0.45*Outer Diameter.

Now, a formula is created to control the length of the tumbler by using Pad length as: Pad Length = 2* Outside Diameter.

Finally, a formula is created to control the edge fillet of the Tumbler as: Edge Fillet Radius = 0.05*Outside Diameter.

Create Design Table:

Now, it is decided that only four variants of tumblers will be produced of Outer Diameters 35mm, 40mm, 45mm & 50mm. Now, a design table is created that will have four configurations for making four variants of tumblers. In this case, a Design Table can have input values for a greater number of parameters with only one driving parameter.

Design Table can be created either using any pre-existing design file or with current parameter values.

Design table is saved. Now, open the design table and add all the input values of parameters and save it.

Design Table is added under Relations node design in the specification tree. Double click on Design Table:

Now, any configuration can be selected and a new variant of tumbler can be obtained.

Connecting 3DEXPERIENCE with Microsoft Office 365

Posted on January 7, 2021September 13, 2024 by Mohit Aggarwal

Why should 3DEXPERIENCE be connected with Microsoft Office 365:

To enable the user to get email notifications for password reset and for all the tasks for which the user must be notified, 3DEXPERIENCE needs to be connected with Microsoft Office 365.

The challenge in connecting 3DEXPERIENCE with MS Office 365 is that MS Office 365 only authenticates TLS enabled applications and 3DEXPERIENCE is not TLS enabled.

Hence, to connect 3DEXPERIENCE with MS Office 365 a SMTP Relay is required. For SMTP Relay, either some third-party SMTP Relay software can be used or IIS SMTP Relay can be used which comes pre-installed along with Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Operating System.

Steps to Connect 3DEXPERIENCE with Microsoft Office 365:

Configure IIS SMTP Relay for 3DEXPERIENCE & Microsoft Office 365:

Click on Windows icon ➜ Windows Administrative Tools ➜ Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager

Create a new Virtual SMTP Server with a fully qualified domain as smtp.office365.com

Right click on created SMTP Virtual Server ➜ Properties ➜ Access ➜ Add the local IP of the 3DEXPERIENCE Server.

Right click on created SMTP Virtual Server ➜ Properties ➜ Delivery ➜ Outbound Security. Select Basic Authentication and give credentials of Outlook master user (IT Head or master user). Also check TLS encryption.

Configure 3DEXPERIENCE Configuration files for IIS SMTP Relay:

Open 3DPassport\win_b64\code\bin\enovia.ini file and update below lines:

MX_SMTP_HOST= Local IP of 3DEXPERIENCE Server (Ex. 10.116.0.152)

MX_SMTP_SENDER= Email ID authenticating the Relay (Ex abc@domain.com)

MX_SMTP_TRACE=mxtrace.log

Open 3DSpace\win_b64\code\bin\enovia.ini file and update below lines:

MX_SMTP_HOST= Local IP of 3DEXPERIENCE Server (Ex. 10.116.0.152)

MX_SMTP_SENDER= Email ID authenticating the Relay (Ex abc@domain.com)

Open 3DPassport\win_b64\code\tomee\webapps\3dpassport\WEB-INF\classes\dspassport_general.properties file and update below lines:

mail.smtphost= Local IP of 3DExperience Server (Ex. 10.116.0.152)

mail.sender.email= Email Id authenticating the Relay (Ex abc@domain.com)

mail.sender.name= 3DPassport

Open 3DDashboard\win_b64\uwp-config.properties file and update below lines:

uwp.mail.smtp.host= Local IP of 3DExperience Server (Ex. 10.116.0.152)

uwp.mail.sender.address= Email Id authenticating the Relay (Ex abc@domain.com)

Configure Microsoft Office 365 for 3DEXPERIENCE through Admin Center using Admin Account:

Open MS Office 365 Admin Centre. Click Exchange ➜ Mailboxes ➜ Select the 3DEXPERIENCE user account.

Select Mailbox Delegation ➜ Click plus sign on Send As ➜ Add the Master User or IT Head Account whose credentials are used to authenticate the SMTP Relay.

Perform steps a & b for all the users of 3DEXPERIENCE

Start the Virtual SMTP Server from Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager.

After performing Step 1 through Step 4, 3DEXPERIENCE will be connected to Microsoft Office 365. Now, if user opens 3DPassport in browser and click “Forgot My Password” and submit his email ID and captcha code, then the user will receive a mail to reset the password. Also, user will start getting email notifications for all the tasks such as Project Tasks, Collaborative Tasks, Change Action, Issue, Route etc.

What will happen if 3DEXPERIENCE is not connected to MS Office 365:

If a user forgets his 3DEXPERIENCE password, then it would become a very tedious job to reset the password from server side. This would cause downtime for the user as he wouldn’t be able to access 3DEXPERIENCE and do any work which will cause project delay.

The user will not receive email notifications regarding tasks notifications, deadlines, notifications etc. due to which the user might forget to complete tasks and miss deadlines which may cause delay in projects.

Month: January 2021