Okay so I have said it before, but SolidWorks Sheetmetal has changed my life. Today it is making my life quicker and easier. As you know, I have been using SolidWorks Sheetmetal for Corrugated (Cardboard) design. Today am going a little bit different direction.
In this post, I will cover how I used SolidWorks Sheetmetal to make a heat-bending jig for Expanded PVC, AKA Sintra, or Komatex, or Celtec, or Jason Bourne. The part I was working on had (4) Bends and none of them are a straight forward simple 90deg bend
So, Solidworks Sheetemtal to the rescue! Now if you recall from SolidWorks Sheet Metal Changed My Life Pt1. I created a bunch of custom gauge tables. We are going to use those gauge tables in this project. If you did not read Part 1, click the link above to get up to speed.
So here is the Sintra part I wanted to create, and as you can see the part has a couple bends that are not at 90degs.
And here is the profile from an end-view:
So, I did something that I hate hate hate to do. (No not brush my dogs teeth I mean I do hate that also), but I am talking about in-context design. I love the premise of the technique, and we can debate it all we want.
In-context design has been minimized for me, as I have started to fall in love with Multibody parts. I keep finding new ways to multibody parts, so modeling in-context has not been as critical as it used to be. Plus I really hate in-context because it can be a pain to figure out what file is controlling what features, and what Gary’s true design intent was. Do you remember Gary? Gary Daniel Smith? He was pink-slipped two weeks ago for being GDS (God Damn Stupid). Now all the files have shitty references that can’t be undone without some LSD and a handful of quaaludes to help make sense of them.
The reason why I am designing in context today is because of one of the few limitations in Multibody parts. That limitation is that you can’t have multiple gauge tables running in the same Multibody part file.
This was important as the main part is Sintra, and I used my custom Plastic Heat Bending Table. The jig I was making was going to be from E-Flute Corrugated. Totally different materials with different bend properties.
I had to match the required shape pretty exactly, and I was doing this on the quick and dirty, AKA dangerously average. I knew I was running the risk that in two months, this jig would either be brilliant or all of my title blocks would go from T.P.H. to G.D.S.
But enough about Gary… What matters is the process
So, let us walk thru the key points for anyone reading who is starting to use SolidWorks for Corrugated design. I start off by taking the part I want to make the jig for and drop it into an assembly. Then I go all in-context and used the offset sketch tool to create .015in clearance for my template Jig. This was all done in context so it kind of looked like this:
Yeah, there is a lot going on here. Basically, with corrugate, you design the parts like they are a fruit roll-up. The intent is to take a piece of flat stock, and keep bending up, and bending up, and bending up until it is all in place. Here is an over-exaggerated sketch so you can see what I mean:
So when you are done, it ends up looking like this. It is important to make sure that when you run the Base Flange feature none of the flanges intersect any part of the profile. So keep using that magic 64th offset. I often will create a global variable of (Material Thickness + .015)
It gets explained later, but if you think you see “Extra” bends, then you are wrong, and those are not the bends you are looking for.
Now some things are a little more critical than others, but in general, if you flatten this out you are left with:
To keep this thing from un-rolling I will be using hot glue. I left some bends longer to use as Glue Tabs. The (5) glue joints are shown below, and I am now using the “Extra Bends”
With this being a heat bending jig, I was not too worried about how it looked, just if it worked, so I added some edge flanges to cap this profile in:
The outside shape is almost perfect, so we just need to add some small details to make sure the part I am bending can register righ up into the this jig. On the leading edge of the jig, I intentionally left a small gap between the two vertical walls.
What we are doing in this step is cutting a notch so the leading edge of the part gets locked into place before bending. This cut was made like this:
After this cut, go ahead and unfold the part, you will see the flat pattern looks like this:
So, you are left with a 2pc assembly. The Sintra part we are bending and the jig. Again we are using some in-context references to keep the profile of the Jig identical to the shape of the heat-bent cover
The Heat Bending was then pretty easy, Here is the Jig labeled for the shop guys on what bends are 1st, 2nd and 3rd
And finally a couple of images of the forming process, in well the forming process:
Blank right off of the CNC:
Heating up the bends:
Finally working the bends into the jig:
And bending back over the top:
Finally, it is not much of a glamour shot, but here you go, it is sitting perfectly around the bottom base:
So there you have it just another way that SolidWorks Sheetmetal has changed my life for the better. This approach may be dangerously average, but for only 30pcs, it worked perfectly!
