Video: 4 Sheet Metal Assembly Design Considerations to Save Time and Money | Duration: 1352s | Summary: 4 Sheet Metal Assembly Design Considerations to Save Time and Money

Transcript for "4 Sheet Metal Assembly Design Considerations to Save Time and Money": Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I'm going to just wait a minute, let people, finish trickling in, then we'll get started. Alrighty. So while the rest of everyone else is filtering in, I will go ahead and get introductions out of the way. Hi, everybody. My name is Chris Litchfield. I am the applications engineer or rather one of the applications engineers for Proto Labs over our sheet metal division. I've been with the company for 15 years. I've been spent about 12 years of those years working hands on with sheet metal, became basically a fabricator of sorts, and now I work in the office in the application engineering role, talking with customers and helping with sheet metal designs and kind of helping educate and bring knowledge forward with regards to sheet metal design, what sort of capabilities you can achieve using sheet metal, you know, when it's a good fit and when it isn't. Alright. So thank you all for coming to this presentation today on sheet metal assemblies. ProLabs, we're very excited to really be pushing forward on assemblies. It's a it's a big part of, you know, who we are as a sheet metal company. You know, sheet metal parts and assemblies kinda go hand in hand. If you ever think about any sort of anything that's ever been made out of sheet metal, whether it's a server rack or anything like that, you know, parts are being put together, and we are happy to be able to offer that. So we're gonna do just a quick rundown on the agenda today. We're gonna talk through some of the, different assembly types that you're gonna see here. We're going to run through some of the different design tips. We got 4 of them today to go over. We're going to talk about tooling and hardware. We're going to talk about different punch features. We're going to talk about how to mate your components so that way there they fit together when you, you know, send them our way. And we're going to talk a little bit about welding. All right. So we're going to move forward. So what kind of assemblies fit through Proto Labs? Well, basically anything, cabinets, server racks, weldments, consoles, things like that. Proto Labs has made anything and everything, and we can make even more than just that. My advice to anybody whoever asks if we can make something is to just send it in, and we can talk through the the design. The sky really is the limit as far as what you can make. The only stipulation we have is within our, size capable our size limitations, 39 inches by 47 inches by 36 inches With it so long as it fits within that box, you are more than able to get it made through us. All right. Let's go on to the tips. We're going to talk about designing for tooling and hardware access. All right. So hardware inserts. One of the things when you have hardware into a part, which is a pretty common thing, you see it in parts that aren't just assembled components, is you need to have access from both sides of the part. Now, if you're looking at the images there on the left hand side, you'll see kind of the anatomy of a hardware press. You've got the lower anvil and you've got the upper punch and the punch pushes down into the anvil and it clinches that piece of PEM hardware into that material. And that's what locks it in place and gets you that permanent install installation. That being said, when you're designing the part, we need to be able to access both sides of the material to put that in. So that's one thing to keep in mind. As you can see, the hardware or the, the PEM hardware insert inserter, there's some clearance issues there or there's some things to consider with the far the anvil goes. PEM Serters generally tend to be designed to provide a pretty large amount of clearance. So, typically, it's not an issue. However, if it is an issue, we will reach out to you and discuss possible alternatives. Spot welding is very much in the same way as PEM insertion. You've got a lower electrode and upper electrode, pinches together, runs a current through the material, creates a little mini weld and the materials fuse together. We need 600 we need a flange to be 625000ths of an inch wide. That's about roughly 16 millimeters, in order to spot weld. The reason being is because that's the, that we need that material space for the tooling that we have. We are actively working on trying to reduce that, width to be more accommodating to other designs. But for right now, 625,000 or, again, the 16 millimeters is what we need. And again, that's it's much in the same way with hardware. You need to be able to access it from both sides of the part in order to get a good spot weld. Alright. And then we're talking about welding and rivets. When it comes to, like, MIG and TIG welding, you need to consider the the the welder and how they're able to access the the seam in particular that wants to be welded. Generally, Proto Labs tries to weld from the exterior of the part. It gives us the easiest amount of clearance. It allows us to clean the part easier. Our standard operating procedure is to grind and blend all welds after welding. However, we all understand sometimes that that's not what you want and you need to weld on the inside corner. We can absolutely accommodate that. We just need to be able to get the TIG torch and the welder's hand in there so that way there they can get it welded. We do have access to torches that are smaller than usual, with little button caps instead to give us good access into tight corners and areas. However, it does need to be something that's considered when welding, in much in the same way with riveting. Hard rivets or hard rivets, apologies, solid rivets, are much in the same way as PEM hardware. You need to have access to both sides of the part. We do have some tooling outside of just the, PEM Serters that we can use to squish in hard rivets or the solid rivets rather, but they do, again, have some clearance issues. Blind rivets are by and far the most versatile kind of rivet or joining method. We need to only have to have access to one side of the part. So long as we can get the rivet gun onto the part the rivet to pull it through, we're good, which makes them very desirable for larger cabinets or things of that nature where you might not necessarily be able to have a lot of clearance on the opposite side. Alright. Let's move on to the next part. We're gonna talk about punched form features. So in this image, you're gonna see some punched form features. These are examples of something that's called an emboss. Proto Labs as a general offering has a larger catalog of punch tooling at our disposal for various different shapes. We have embossments. We have extruded holes. We have louvers, different rib tools. The list goes on and on. We also have the capability to special order, punch tooling if you have something that is absolutely, you know, no room for error on your design. However, we do advise in order to save money and time, potentially considering working with something that we stock in house. That being said, also, when you're dealing with parts and assemblies, it will save you a lot of time and potential potentially money to try and keep everything similar. If you have an embossment, you know, try and keep that height the same, try and keep the size the same. So that way there you can save time and money on, you know, the punch tooling as well as the creation. Something else to consider is what side the punch features go through. Your heights, your you know, if you have punch features that are extruding through both sides of the sheet, when the part is flattened, that might mean that we might need to deviate away from offering one of those punch features because sometimes punch features going down does not work very well in our punch presses, as it causes interference issues where the punch feature might actually get crushed during the punching process. So again, those are things to consider when you have punched features. Let's go ahead and move on to the next one, mating components. So when you're designing your part, you want to consider tolerances. Our tolerancing document is available on our website, with a general overview of the tolerances that we have for various for various dimensions. Generally, you're gonna see either plus or minus 5 1000s or 10 1000s. The so when you are designing your parts, you want to kind of keep that in mind as you go along. As a rule, Proto Labs will make sure that when your assembly is going through the inspection department, we will make sure that everything fits. So if you've designed your part with you know, if you designed your parts to fit altogether and you submitted in and we are designing it or making it as an assembly, we will make sure that everything fits. But that being said, you do want to take into account that you need to consider, tolerances during the forming during the designing process. Again, the tolerancing doc is available on our website. We have a more comprehensive document that can be available through your, sales rep. It's a much more comprehensive document, the however, which is why it's, not listed on our website, but it is available, through email. Alright. And we're just gonna go ahead and move on to the final, and we're gonna discuss welding a little bit. So welding. Proto Labs does as a as a rule offer welding without any sort of documentation or instructions. We will we will leave a DFM note stating that we'll weld it per hour discretion, in which case it will be up to the discretion of the welder on how they deem it best welded. However, sometimes that's not always that's not the case. Sometimes you need something specific. So things to consider is whether you're going to seam weld it or you're going to stitch weld it, whether it's going to get tack welded, things that you need to think about how much heat is going into the material. Sheet metal as a whole is a, you know, takes in material and deforms a lot faster and easier than some of the thicker plate materials or even, you know, castings or plate material. So you need to consider that in mind. You also need to consider the material type. If you're making a part out of aluminum, aluminum by nature absorbs heat a lot more than steel, which means that your material is more likely to warp if you're putting in a lot of heat in one area, which is something to consider when you're talking about making a welded assembly where you might have multiple components, sometimes upwards of 20 to 30 pieces. In an assembly, you need to consider how much time that's going to take to weld because again, you're dumping a lot of heat into a relatively small area. All right. Let's see. Moving on to the final final page here. As always, Proto Labs does offers, design for assembly feedback. You can schedule a design review session where you sit down with your sales rep and myself or another application engineer, and we talk through all sorts of different options that you have available, whether it's just changing a design. So that way there, it works with what we provide offer for standard tooling, whether it's potentially reworking a design so that way there, it can be made easier and less components, potentially more components if it's too complex for us to make as modeled. You know, the list goes on and on. These sessions can be as brief as 15 minutes or as long as an hour or even longer if you need if need be. But these are always available to you and always for, for free. It's a complimentary service that we op that we offer. Alright. Excellent. Well, thank you very much for sitting down and listening. We can now move on to the q and a portion. Okay. So the first question is from Jeff Schreiber. Apologies if I mispron apologies if I mispronounce anybody's last name. Is PEM used as a generic industry term for self quenching features or only those produced by the PEM company? So we use it kind of the same way that you use the word Kleenex to describe a tissue. PEM is the standard brand that we stock. We can work with some Southco or McMaster branded items if need be. But PEM is generally the one that we try to work with the most. They have the, the widest variety of components and the widest availability for us. K. Next question. Alright. Victor Simoni. Alright. Tolerancing on hold to hold on same plane is usually plus or minus 5,000, but once you insert PEM hardware, does that tolerance change PEM hold to hold or PEM to PEM? No. That does not. That tolerance remains the same. Okay. We can move on to the next one. K. John Hallinan asks, can you spot weld galvanize? We do not weld, weld or spot weld pre plated materials. If your assembly comes in and you're requesting welding and the material requested is a pre plated material, generally, what we will do is deviate to our in house mild steel with the zinc plating operation afterwards. We do this for a number of reasons. Prepping well prepping material for welding, when it's pre plated means getting rid of that pre plating, which means we need to reapply plating afterwards. It's also kind of a health hazard for the welders, and we're not set up to, vacate those fumes from the, the welding area. Alright. Next question. Alright. Misha Malco asks, is there a table for available standard tooling? Not currently. They are working on one, though, and I can say it will be available very soon. We have a punch tooling catalog that will be available on our website. I believe that we'll have axe we'll have, 3 d viewable, models of our punch features. Alright. Next, can you supply specs or dimensions on the forming tools Prolapse offers? Yes. So when we deviate to an in house tool, we will leave a we will attach a punch tooling sheet to your quote showing you what the dimensions are. Those dimensions also typically contain tolerancing if there is any tolerancing that is applicable to it. We can also on a as need be basis because of the size of the punch tooling catalogs, we generally don't just email them out because it would be numerous zip folders, for some of these due to the size of the catalogs that we have. So you can email yours your rep or one of our applications engineers, and we can, email you the punch features that'll best fit what it is you're looking for. K. And next? Alright. Victor asks again, what is the tolerance on embossment height? The tolerances are going to be dependent on the punch tool. Typically, those tolerances will be listed on the on the, punch tooling sheet. I believe we also have some callouts on our tolerancing doc, for if those aren't mentioned. K. And next question. Victor asks again, do you offer first article inspection? Do you offer RoHS and reach cert compliance certs? You did not before, and therefore, our company moved away from pro last protection parts. Well, you are in luck because, yes, we do. We offer ros RoHS and reach certs, CFC, material certifications, first article inspections. The only caveat with first article inspections that we just require that you have a you have a drawing. If you don't have a drawing available, we can offer a dimensional inspection instead, which will just be a print that we balloon and then a selection of dimensions that we, you know, call out. Alright. And next. K. And, Jeff, k, are you aware of any guidance on designing low cost pivot hinges between sheet metal parts, rivets, and PEM studs? So hinges are kind of one of the things that we do not offer. We don't really have any tooling to do so. Best off best options that I can come up with is to work with off the shelf components readily available through McMaster. Try to find things that do not require any sort of, alterations. Typically, McMaster will have parts that already have the, mounting holes already drilled into place. And then in which case, you can either have those riveted or you could have them tack welded depending upon material compatibility. Okay. And next. Alright. And asked, is Proto Labs Sheet Metal Manufacturing same as Rapid, which is on the Proto Labs website? Yes. So Rapid Sheet Metal was bought out by Proto Labs. We are still currently using some of the well, not using, but we are, our quoting platform and some of our manufacturing platforms are still based on the old, rapid architecture. We are still maintaining those because they see they are what's working the best for us as far to get quotes out to you fastest. Next. Alright. And that seems to be about it. Thank you very much everybody for attending. I really appreciate your time. This, this webinar will be available on our website in a couple of weeks. And, if anybody has any questions further afterwards, please don't hesitate to give us a call. You can find our contact information on our website, and we will be more than happy to talk with you and sit down and discuss your sheet metal designs. My name is Chris, and again, thank you so much.