SolidWorks Platform Research Articles

A decision support system for the selection of FDM process parameters using MOORA

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an automated process of fabricating three-dimensional (3D) physical objects from a 3D-CAD data by adding layers of materials one upon another through a print head or nozzle without using any tooling components or machining environments. Due to freedom in design, any complex shape can be produced using this process. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one such AM technology that is commonly used for its simplicity, environment friendliness and low requirement for process monitoring. However, this technology is limited only to small-scale production due to high cost and high build time. The present work focuses on the development of a framework for parametric optimization of the FDM process using multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA). A CAD model of the cam follower mechanism has been prepared in the Solidworks platform and used in this experiment for optimization of build time and cost which have been considered as response variables of the experiment. The experiment has been conducted following the full factorial design of experiment (DoE) method.

Dual-axis solar tracking system with different control strategies for improved energy efficiency

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are rapidly increasing worldwide but are often installed as fixed flat-plate systems with predefined angles. This paper focuses on constructing a closed-loop solar tracking system (STS) to accurately measure the sun's location in real time, enabling solar panels to collect maximum solar radiation. A sensor-based feedback controller compares sunlight intensity to a threshold, driving a motor to rotate the dual-axis tracking motor and turn the PV panel toward the sun. The system, consisting of an electrical and mechanical system, was designed using the SIMULINK platform and SOLIDWORKS platform for real-life solar tracker systems. Simulation results show that the tracker stand construction in the SP-13 program for three 335-watt PV panels has sufficient strength against normal and critical wind speeds. These findings will greatly benefit the development of a dual-axis real-time sun tracker PV system.

Enhancement of Chiller Performance by Water Distribution on the Adiabatic Cooling Pad’s Mesh Surface

Evaporative cooling is widely recognized as an energy efficient and environmentally-friendly air conditioning solution, and it has drawn a lot of market interest in recent years. However, this technology is accompanied by several challenges. For instance, insufficient evaporation due to poor and non-homogenous water distribution of the pre-cooling pad significantly reduces the cooling performance. The aim of the study is to develop a technique for numerical simulation of the distribution of a droplet liquid (water) on the mesh surface of an adiabatic cooler to improve the performance of air conditioning equipment. Modern computer-aided design (CAD)/computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programs were used to solve the issue. For the mathematical modelling of the medium motion, non-stationary Navier–Stokes equations were used. Parameters such as heat, mass transfer, and the efficiency of liquid droplet spraying were determined. The current study presents CAD modelling, conducted in SolidWorks platform, of water distribution on the adiabatic cooling pad’s mesh surface for improving air conditioning equipment performance. This study provides the methodology for computer modeling and numerical calculation of the parameters of adiabatic cooling, such as modelling of water atomization process. The results show that the use of additional metal mesh intended as cooling pads increases the mass transfer coefficient by Sh ≈ 15–40%; heat transfer coefficient Nu increases by ≈20–40%; and the atomization efficiency increases by ≈30–40%. The installation of metal pad mesh allows for equalized uniformity of the water distribution. The results imply that there are more opportunities to optimize the parameters of adiabatic cooling, which should be evaluated in further research on the subject.

A Sperm-Based Autonomous Micro-Robot: First Step

Abstract The weakness of sperm motility arouses the interest of many researchers due to its effect on the success of fertilization cases in couples. In recent years, this has led to the emergence of new technologies such as controllable micro-motor systems which still under evolution. The previous works that concerned with the design of micro-motors in assisting of sperm for moving or change their direction, were not autonomous-based systems. Further, it is worth noting, designing an autonomous micro-robot that emulates sperm in size and behavior is a difficult challenge. Therefore, this paper presents the first step in designing this micro-robot, by drawing the physical structure of micro-robot based on figuring the biological structure of sperm and its behavior to complete the fertilization process. While the main objective is to design a Micro-actuator system, based on the piezoelectric technique for generating a forward thrust force of the micro-robot. The simulation of the proposed design has been conducted by the Solidworks platform and MATLAB, to examine the performance of the micro-actuator system, in which the results describe the requirement for achieving an actuation system.

Enhancing the Reconfigurability Issues of Machine Tool for Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS)

This paper presents a novel concept to enhance the reconfigurability issues (i.e. convertibility, flexibility, etc.) of a small-scale reconfigurable machine tool (RMT) by combining multiple modules (both basic and auxiliary parts) and manufacturing operations on a single workstation. The proposed reconfigurable machine will reduce the overall space, transport time, ramp up time, reconfiguration time and interim storage space. Further, various characteristics of reconfigurability (such as scalability; convertibility, flexibility, etc.) and enablers of the machine tool have been discussed. The proposed design is illustrated with a figure, which is designed on a 3D design tool (solid-works software platform).This machine tool will perform six major cutting and finishing operations, namely, hacksaw cutting, milling, drilling, grinding, buffing and lathe operations on a single work platform.

Development of Parametric Drawing System of Corrugated Boxes Based on SolidWorks

Corrugated box is a widely used means of transportation packaging, there are various box types such as slotted type, nested type, folding type, slide type, fixing type, automatic type and other types of boxes, special standards on the type and size of corrugated box is formulated by Chinese national standards. However, when drawing corrugated boxes with various CAD software now, we need to model and edit according to the box shape, specific size of corrugated boxes and the drawing efficiency is low. In this paper, on the basis of the established corrugated box access database, we use the Visual Basic to develop corrugated box parametric drawing system on SolidWorks platform. The users only need to select the desired corrugated box carton and the key parameters, then can get the 2D expansion diagrams and 3D stereoscopic diagrams in accordance with the national standard, which significantly improve the efficiency of the corrugated box drawing.

The design of a rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles–payload drop mechanism for fire-fighting services using fire-extinguishing balls

This study aims to encourage the idea of utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles in the fire-fighting application. In this paper, we present a remote-controlled rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle made from metal alloys. This unmanned aerial vehicle, using a payload drop mechanism, can carry fire-extinguishing balls and release them to combat fires, especially in places not easily accessible by humans. The payload drop mechanism is a novel design that has an advantage of dropping two (maximum four) fire-extinguishing balls one at a time using one servo motor. Hence, the servo motor is controlled by one radio channel of the remote controller. Besides, comparing it to our (mechanism A) first designed mechanism, this payload drop mechanism shows smaller horizontal area for fitting most of the drones as well as less effect of vibrations during flight. The whole system is designed using Solidworks platform and manufactured with computer numerical control machining and three-dimensional printing. Thus, the potential use of unmanned aerial vehicles to carry out fire-fighting operations using the proposed payload drop mechanism is successfully examined.

A conceptual development of reconfigurable drill machine tool (RDMT)

Reconfigurable machine tools are emerging as new generation machine tools for dealing with the fluctuating market scenario and immense competition between original equipment manufacturers. New approaches, mechanism and designs principles are required for the development of these machine tools in manufacturing systems. A lot of research work has been done in reconfigurable machine tool (i.e. lathe, milling, shaper, NC, CNC etc.) but still less work has been conducted to develop reconfigurable drilling machine. This paper presents a modular approach to develop Reconfigurable Drilling Machine Tool, which will allow the machine not only to reconfigure the modules in a certain way for performing a specific task but also to develop a new type of machine which can incorporate all the features of reconfiguration for the production of multiple part families on a single platform. A module library, which includes basic and auxiliary modules, is implemented on this machine tool to explain the core features (i.e. scalability, modularity, convertibility and flexibility). Probably, this proposed design contributes a theoretical approach for the reconfiguration features of drilling machine in Reconfigurable Manufacturing System and this proposed design is illustrated through a figure, which is developed on design software (i.e. solid works platform).

An Approach to Develop Shaper Cum Slotter Mechanism: A Reconfigurable Machine Tool

The traditional structure of machines (such as lathe, milling, shaper, slotter, drilling and planer) has become questionable because of the modular concepts (such as modularity, scalability, convertibility, mobility and flexibility) and reconfiguration becomes a promising approach towards modular manufacturing machines, in which manufacturing techniques are independent of changes. In this area, reconfigurable machine tool (RMT) forms a new class of modular machines in current manufacturing scenario where the manufacturing industry put a strong pressure on good quality and price reduction. The capabilities of the machines tool and manufacturing systems in reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) change with each reconfiguration (both software and hardware modules). In this case, an approach is presented for reconfiguration of horizontal shaper machine for developing the modular shaper cum slotter machine in a manufacturing system by adding some auxiliary (like Scott Russel mechanism) and some basic modules and the reconfiguration features of traditional shaper and slotter machine are also discussed. The proposed approach is illustrated with a figure, which has been designed on 3-D design tool (solid-works software platform). It is expected that, this work will help designers and practising engineers by making them aware of the reconfiguration mechanisms on traditional shaper machine, which have become a necessity for the very survival of manufacturing by lowering the operational costs.

Approach to generation of random aggregate model and gradient optimization of background grid based on SolidWorks platform

Use development platform of SolidWorks software to improve the efficiency of generating numerical concrete and aggregate content and can handle with complex geometric shape aggregate. Propose a gravel aggregate generation method that cutting entity with planes and a cobble aggregate generation method that lofting of alpine curves to produce pebbles. Improvements of delivery method are made in three aspects: using the background grid with gradient mesh density to find delivery position; checking interference with SolidWorks API function; and moving aggregate close to and contact with another aggregate in three directions freely. And the generation of three-grade numerical concrete is taken as an example. The results show that the method is simple and reliable, and the aggregate content of grade two, grade three and grade four concrete can reach 55, 64 and 72%, respectively, and the aggregate with complex shape can be simulated. This paper shows that the pretreatment process of mass numerical concrete is completed for the first time by using SolidWorks, and the pretreatment method of the original background mesh is improved, so that it is more suitable for the large pretreatment process. This method can provide a good reference for the pretreatment process of mass and high-content numerical concrete.

A new two-step adaptive direct slicing approach for bio-scaffolds in tissue engineering

PurposeThis paper aims to propose the new two-step adaptive direct slicing method for building bio-scaffold with digital micro-mirror device (DMD)-based MPμSLA systems.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors proposed a new approach to directly slice a scaffold’s CAD model (i.e the three-dimensional model built by computer-aided design platforms) and save the slices’ data as BMP (bitmap, i.e. the data format used in DMD) files instead of other types of two-dimensional patterns as an intermediary. The proposed two-step strategy in this paper, i.e. a CAD model’s exterior surface and internal architecture were sliced, respectively, at first, and then assembled together to obtain one intact slice. The assembly process is much easier and convenient based on the slice data in BMP format. To achieve the adaptive slicing for both the exterior part and internal part, two new indices, the exterior surface-dominated index and internal architecture-dominated index, are, respectively, utilized as the error estimation indices. The proposed approach in this paper is developed on SolidWorks platform, but it can also be implemented on other platforms.FindingsThe authors found that the approach is not only more accurate but also more efficient by avoiding the repeated running of those inefficient rasterization programs. The approach is able to save computer resource and time, and enhance the robustness of slicing program, as well as is appropriate for the scaffolds’ model with internal pore architecture and external free-form surface.Practical implicationsBio-scaffolds in tissue engineering require precise control over material distribution, such as the porosity, connectivity, internal pore architecture and external free-form surface. The proposed two-step adaptive direct slicing approach is a good balance of slicing efficiency and accuracy and can be useful for slicing bio-scaffolds’ models.Originality/valueThis paper gives supports to build bio-scaffold with DMD-based MPμSLA systems.

Optimum design of the metal bellows on the SolidWorks platform

Optimum design of the metal bellows on the SolidWorks platform

СРАВНИТЕЛЬНОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ СХЕМ ВОЗДУШНОГО ОБОГРЕВА И УДАЛЕНИЯ ВОЗДУХА ВНУТРИШАТРОВОГО УКРЫТИЯ

The article describes the problem of drying painted parts of the hull when deviation from recommended temperature leads to uneven and slow drying. The problem solution is to conduct painting and drying of finished products in specially equipped tents where temperature is artificially maintained. If outside temperature is below zero, thermal diesel heaters (calorifers) are generally used inside the tent. They are selected depending on the tent area and air temperature outside on the day of painting and drying procedures. The article presents a numerical model of the drying chamber with a large-sized painted part, developed on Solid Works platform. The purpose of the model is to study temperature and velocity fields and a trajectory of the flowing fluid (air). There have been considered two variants of placing air exhaust systems for removing air from the tent: from below - at 1.5 m from the floor; and from above - at 1.5 m from the ceiling of the tent. When air is removed from below, a distinct upflow has been noted to form and gather in the upper part of the chamber, which makes the temperature rise throughout the tent. When air is removed from the upper part of the tent, this upflow disappears resulting in lowering temperature in the chamber. When comparing velocity trajectories one can see that when air removal is done in the upper part, flow rate is faster. And watching a temperature trajectory of the flowing fluid again confirms the theory of free convection: at bottom removal the air is better mixed with cold air streams, creating a more uniform temperature distribution throughout the drying chamber.

Research on Mechanical Parametric Design System Based on C-K Theory

C-K theory as an innovative design theory and combination the characteristics and deformation of the design. Into the product variant design will make the parametric mechanical design modeling more rigorous and standardized. The paper has carried on the second development on the Solidworks platform. On the basis of this, the modular intelligent design platform of NC grinding machine is realized. An innovative design method of GL-KXM series milling and grinding machine's parametric, series and intelligent assembly is presented.Realize the automatic generation from the user needs to the 3D entity model,and the feasibility of the method is verified by an example of software.

The Research and Development of CNC Diamond Faceting Machine

Diamond faceting is an important process of precious metal jewelry.Now it mainly rely on traditional processing methods to operate manual processing, but the pattern processed by manual is poor quality, consistency, and it also requires workers to have higher operating techniques and experience. What’s more, after long continuous work, workers’ body will cause some damage. This article develops a five-axis CNC diamond faceting machine based on Solidworks platform, introduces the design of each axis of the machine and describes the research of the tool path algorithm on the surface of jewelry and completes the parametric equations’ derivation of space curve in the surface of ellipsoid, finally use MATLAB GUI module to write the tool path generation software.

Digital Rapid Modeling Design of Heavy-Duty Cutting Blade Based on Solidworks

Heavy machinery processing industry has its own disadvantages, that is, the large size and heavy weight of workpieces. Some of them may even weigh hundreds of tons. When processing horizontal lathe, the turning diameter of it can be as long as six meters and the vertical lathe can reach ten meters. Heavy duty cutting mainly concerns about how to improve the processing efficiency, enhance the equipment utilization and to reduce energy consumption. Therefore, this proposes a higher requirement to heavy cutting tool, especially the design of the blade is of great importance. Based on the analysis of heavy cutting blade’s structure, this dissertation uses the method of parametric design which is suitable for Solidworks, with the combination of OLE and COM technology. It also utilizes Visual Basic on the Solidworks platform for secondary development and design, and develops the fast digital modeling software design. The software can not only realize the rapid modeling of heavy cutting blade, but also shorten the design cycle and improve the efficiency of the cutting tool which benefited from the convenient design of the heavy blade, which has a significantly practical application value.

Development and Application of a Synchronous Belt Drive Design System

To solve the synchronous belt drive design and 3D modeling problem, a synchronous belt drive design system has been developed with the Visual Basic language and SolidWorks platform. Applications have shown that this system can realize design calculation of the synchronous belt drive and the 3D modeling of spare parts and assemblies like the small belt pulley, large belt pulley and synchronous belt, as required by the customer. Also, it has a user-friendly interface, handy operation, simple operation, and accurate design results, to effectively shorten the design period.

Design and 3D Modeling System Development of a Classical V-Belt Drive

to realize computer-aided design and 3D modeling of the classical V-belt drive, a classical V-belt drive design and 3D modeling system was developed with the SolidWorks platform and using Visual Basic language. This system is composed of the design subsystem and the 3D modeling subsystem, which enabled the classical V-belt design process to be automatic and the fast 3D modeling of parts and assemblies. The application of design and 3D modeling for the classical V-belt drive system on the pot-seedling hole-forming machine has shown that this system can ensure accurate design results and shorten the design period.

Development of a CAD/CAPP Integrated System for Metal Bellows Expansion Joints

To meet the requirements of improving design efficiency and decreasing technique mistakes in the enterprise whose productions are customized by users, a method is introduced to develop CAD/CAPP integrated system. The functions of the integrated CAD/CAPP system developed according to this method include 3D modeling automatically assembled, 2D engineering drawing automatically drawn, process planning sheets automatically filled and parameters of key parts checked and optimized. This method is based on adding special features to the 3D modeling. An example CAD/CAPP integrated system of Metal Bellows Expansion Joints (MBEJ) is developed by using VisualBasic6.0 based on SolidWorks platform. This system can design MBEJ part parameters per GB/T12777 standard. These parameters have been used to generate MBEJ 3D models, engineering drawings and processing planning sheets automatically. All the functions have been integrated in SolidWorks software environment. The drawing paper and processing planning sheets can be modified manually to satisfy special demand.

The Feature-Based Parametrized Solid Module and the Dynamic Simulated Research of Medical Chest

This essay introduces the basic methods and the key technics of establishing the parametrized solid module of field medical chest on SolidWorks platform and how to dynamically simulate it by means of 3DS MAX. It explains how to avoid the module repetition of medical chest and to make observation of the work of its each part so as to shorten the product development period and improve its design quality.