MECHANICAL ASSEMBLY

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In an assembly model, components are brought
together to define a larger, more complex
product representation.

Assembly modeling is a tool that allows and facilitates the

collaboration among designers, analysis people,
manufacturing people, and others, to insure their assembly
works together. This enables individuals in different
disciplines to work concurrently, resulting in faster and less
costly delivery of products to market.

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 Assembly Modeling

• Constructing an assembly begins with bringing in a base

component, selected because of its central role.

• Each component brought in needs to be oriented and

located relative to other components in the assembly.

• Geometric relations (constraints) are used between

elements of components.

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• Bottom-Up Design (Modeling) – this is a logical, traditional, and most common
approach. The individual parts a created independently, inserted into the assembly,
and located and oriented (using the mating conditions) as required by the design.

• The components (parts) are created first and then added to the assembly file. This
technique is particularly useful when parts already exist from previous designs
and are being re-used.

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• Top-Down Design (Modeling) – In this approach, the assembly file is
created first with an assembly layout sketch. The parts are made in the
assembly file or the concept drawing of the parts are inserted and finalized
in the assembly file. In other words, the final geometry of the parts have not
been defined before bringing them into the assembly file. The approach is
ideal for large assemblies.

• Combination – basic geometry for a part is established first, then it is

brought into an assembly for further refinements.
 Locating & Orienting Parts in the Assembly
Mating Conditions
Most common mating conditions are Coincident, Concentric, Tangent,
Coplanar, Parallel and Perpendicular faces, and Offset faces.

Coincident
The coincident mating condition
is applied between to planar faces

Each face is specified by its unit normal vector,

n, and a point on the surface, P. The coincident
An offset option is condition is satisfied by forcing n1 and n2 to be
provided for this opposite of each other, and the two faces touch
command each other such that P1 and P2 are coincident
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 Mating Conditions - Concentric

Concentric
The concentric mating condition is applied between to
cylindrical faces

The concentric mating condition is achieved by forcing the axes to

become collinear. Each axis is defined by two points.
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 Mating Conditions – Coplanar (Aligned)

Coplanar
The coplanar mating condition is applied
between to planar faces, and forces them
to lie in the same plane.

Each face is specified by its unit normal vector,

n, and a point on the surface, P. The coplanar
condition is satisfied by forcing n1 and n2 to be in
the same direction, and the two points, P1 and P2,
are chosen to lie on the two edge to mate
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 Mating Conditions – Tangent
Tangent

The tangent mating condition is applicable between a planar and cylindrical

surfaces or two cylindrical surfaces.

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 Other Mating Conditions

• Parallel
• Perpendicular
• Surface intersecting an edge
• Edge intersecting a point
• Angles of surfaces/planes to each other
• Relationship of a geometry to a coordinate
system

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 Degrees of Freedom
There are six degrees of freedom.

• Translation – movement along X, Y, and Z axes (three degrees of freedom).

• Rotation – rotate around X, Y, and Z axes (three degrees of freedom).

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 Degrees of Freedom
Coincident
Two selected surfaces become
co-planar and face in opposite
directions. This constrains 3
degrees of freedom (two
rotations and one translation)

Parallel
Two planar surfaces are made parallel,
not necessarily co-planar, and face the
same direction (similar to Align Offset
except without the specified distance).
Constrains two degrees of
freedom (two rotations)
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Creating an Assembly

Part Part

Assembly

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 Creating an Assembly Example
The example assembly requires three mates to fully define it.
First constrain: Mate between the hollow faces as shown.

Hollow faces

This removes
three degrees of
freedom.

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 Example
Second Constrain: Align the right faces of both components.

Right side faces One degree of

freedom left

Third Constrain: Align the top faces of both components.

top faces
The assembly is
fully defined

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 Example – Switch Plate
Switch plate consists of two components, plate and
fasteners.

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 Example – Switch Plate
First Constrain: Insert select the cylindrical face of the fastener
and the cylindrical face of the switch plate.

Two degrees of freedom remains, the fastener can still move in

and out and rotate inside the hole.
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 Example – Switch Plate
Second Constrain: mate the flat circular back face of the
fastener and the flat front face of the switch plate.

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 Example – Switch Plate
Align Orient could be used to line up the slot on the screw head
with the flat top face of the switch plate.

The assembly is fully defined

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Example

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 Assembly in SolidWorks
Open an Assembly file
File → New → Assembly

Insert a component model

Insert → Component →
Existing Part

You can also drag and

drop components into
the assembly file

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 Assembly in SolidWorks
Mate command
Advance Mates

Select entities

Type of
Mates

Specifies distance
and angle for Mates

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 Assembly in SolidWorks Right click on the
part to be modified
You can use the SmartMates to save time.

To create SmartMates while dragging a component:

1. Hold down Alt and drag a component

over potential mate partners.
2. The component becomes transparent and
the pointer changes when it is over a
valid mate partner.
Move the
3. Drop the component to apply the mate. part

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 Assembly in UG
Application Assembly

Add Existing
Component

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 Assembly in UG

Mate Component

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Ken Youssefi Mechanical
Assembly in UG

Reposition
Component

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 Assembly in UG

Make Work Part

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Ken Youssefi Mechanical
 Pro/E
Mate
Commands

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 Summary
• An assembly contains two or more parts, parts are
referred to as components.
• Mating conditions are relationships that align and
fit components together in an assembly.
• Components and their assembly are directly
related through file linking.
Changes in the components affect the
assembly.
Changes in the assembly affect the
components.

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 Analysis of the Design
Design analysis is the evaluation of a proposed design
based on the criteria established in the ideation phase.

Typical analysis

• Property Analysis
Evaluates a design based on its physical properties:
strength, deflection, size, volume, center of gravity and
rotation, thermal and fluid properties, …..
Finite Element Analysis, Finite Element Modeling

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 Design and Analysis

Mechanism Analysis
Evaluates the motion and loads associated with mechanical
systems made of rigid bodies connected by joints

Kinematics
Determines the motion of assembly without regard to
loads
Dynamic
Determines the loads that drive or create the motion of a
mechanism

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 Design and Analysis
• Functional Analysis
Determines if the design meets the
requirements specified in the ideation phase.

Engineering goals (targets)

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 Design and Analysis

• Human Factors Analysis

Evaluates the design to determine if the product serves
the physical, emotional, mental and safety needs of
the consumer.
How a design interacts with the dimensions, range of
motion, senses and mental capabilities of the people using
the product.

Reference: The Measure of Man, by Henry Dreyfuss.

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 Design and Analysis

• Aesthetic Analysis
Evaluates a design based on the look and feel of the
product.

The product is analyzed by industrial designers,

marketing people and environmental and human
factors engineers. Difficult to measure and quantify.

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