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

Posted on January 24, 2021January 6, 2025 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, 2021January 6, 2025 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, 2021January 6, 2025 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, 2021January 6, 2025 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:

1. Intrinsic Parameters:

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

1. 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:

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

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

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

2. 1. 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, 2021January 6, 2025 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.

Links Management in CATIA V5

Posted on December 21, 2020January 6, 2025 by Mohit Aggarwal

CATIA link is a dependency relation used to share geometric, parametric or positioning information between components in CATIA V5. Links in CATIA are unidirectional and always point from the child to the parent.

Types of Links

There are five types of links each of which are explained below with a common example.

The CCP link

The first CAT Part contains the geometrical definition of the raw material used to create the table leg. The second CAT Part contains the geometrical definition of the finished table leg. Consistency must be ensured between the models: a modification of the raw material must be reflected in the finished leg. For that purpose, the raw material part geometry is copied and pasted in the finished part (with the link maintained), where the machining operations are performed.Since the raw material and the finished leg will never be assembled together, this operation is performed outside the context of an assembly.

The CCP link is created in a part when the geometry is pasted using the ‘Paste special as result with link’ functionality provided the copy/paste operation is performed from part to part and outside the context of a product.

The KWE link

The leg socket is the common interface between the table leg and the tabletop. The dimensions of the socket are stored in parameters in the tabletop part. For the table leg to match the tabletop, those dimensions must match. For that purpose, the dimension can be copied (with the link maintained) from the tabletop to the table leg.

This link is in all points identical to the CCP link, except that parameters are copied instead of geometry.

The KWE link is created in a part where parameters are pasted using the ‘Paste special as result with link’ functionality.

The Instance link

To create a table assembly, the tabletop and table leg components must be inserted in the table assembly CAT Product.

In this process, the table assembly is the parent and the tabletop and table legs are the children. In the table assembly, an Instance link is created for each component. This link carries the name and path of the files.

The Instance link is created in a CAT Product where CAT Parts or CAT Products are inserted.

The Constraints

Assembly constraints are used to position the parts of the assembly. Each leg will require an axis-to-axis coincidence and surface-to-surface contact constraints to position it.

The assembly constraints allow to position parts and products in the context of an assembly. This type of link cannot be visualized in the Edit/ Links menu. The links are stored in the CATProduct and apply to the instance of the components. In other words, an assembly constraint applies to a specific representation of a part in a specific assembly. For example, if the Leg 1 instance is constrained, all the other table leg instances are still free.

If the table leg style A was replaced by a table leg style B in the table assembly, all the constraints would be broken. The use of publications prevents this behavior. If the same publication name (Leg Axis) is applied to both table legs’ axis, the assembly constraint will be reconnected automatically when the table leg is replaced with the second one.

The constraint is created between two part/ product instances. The use of publications will allow reconnecting the constraints automatically when parts are replaced.

The View Link

The table leg CAT Part contains the 3D geometrical definition and a CAT Drawing contains the associated 2D representation. The views are generated from the CAT Part using Generative Drafting functionalities. Whenever the part is modified, the drawing views indicate an update is required to reflect the changes.

This process does not create any external link in the CAT Part (the parent). In the CAT Drawing (the child), a View Link points to the CAT Part (the parent). The View Link is created for each generative view of a drawing. The information carried by the link is the name and path of the source model used for the projection.

The View Link is created between the CAT Drawing for each generated view. The link points to the object used to create the view (CAT Part or CAT Product)

To access Links in CATIA V5, Select Edit ➜ Links.

Here, the pointed documents of Assembly, Part and Drawings can be seen.

Sometimes when an assembly is opened, an error pops up displaying “File could not be found”. This error occurs when the Part or Drawing File is missing from the location it was kept earlier. This error can be resolved by selecting Desk from error message or Select File ➜ Desk.

For example, Crankshaft is the missing part in the below error message.

The part file which is highlighted in red color is missing. Right click on the missing part and select Find. Now browse to the path where that file is kept and select the file. The red highlighted part will turn into white color which means that the part is found and loaded in the assembly.

Category: Blog