Engine Mount Project
Project Description
This project was meant for us to show the new skills we learned on inventor. We were to design an engine mount for an airplane out of a certain type of metal that could withstand negative 3 G's, and (positive) 6 G's. Some other constraints were that we had to pin the tubing to the firewall. We also had to miter, and trim some excess metal. The metal we used had to be ANSI type, and 1.5 inches thick. Other than that, we were free to experiment with different types of metal to see which would work best.
Procedure
Preparation for this project included several things. Before this project, we had two tutorials on basic constraints working in the assembly software. We practiced using those constraints on other assemblies. We also as a class took notes on different materials and their strengths. This gave me some insight on which type of metal to choose.
On inventor, designing the mount itself wasn't very hard at all; given that the skeletal was there for us to follow as an outline. We selected the metal and dimensions, selected the members we wanted to make, hit apply and the members were constructed. We used miter and trim/extend constraints to fit the metal together perfectly. We mitered the tubing where it met another piece of tubing and trimmed it if it was too long, or went past the face we wanted it to be flush with.
Solution
Shown above is a simple slideshow of the two results from the forces testing. The first is with -3 G's applied and the second is with 6 G's applied.
My design meets the constraints because if you examine my design, you will find that all tubing is flush with the necessary faces (trim/extend feature), and the tubes meet each other properly (mitered).
The testing we completed simulates real world scenarios of what forces the engine mount could under-go. Not only can the mount hold the engines dead weight, it is more than capable and has no problem supporting -3G's or 6G's along with the weight of the engine.
Conclusion
In this project, I learned a great deal about inventor and about properties of different materials. On inventor, I learned how to assemble metal products and apply multiple constraints to them. I also learned what types of metals and other materials in general can be used for different applications. I believe the frame generator is a very useful tool: it can tell engineers what their product is going to do and how it will react without having to physically make it and waste a prototype in person.