For the last week I’ve been popping in and out of this design as I prep it for 3D printing. While I did that I noticed a few things that needed attention. This turned into a feasibility study that has taken more time that I desired, but has resulted in a few good articles that are coming soon.
Oil Fittings (Red)
Due to the scale of the design, there were tremendous problems with the Oil Fittings. While there was room for them in the design, getting them installed was a nightmare. The first reason is that no good 3D CAD fittings were available online. This is another reason I am promoting GrabCAD, so we can put decent content out there for everyone. I’ll post the AN fittings there.
I finally got some models and Manufacturer dimensions that helped me build the actual fittings I wanted to test. Then I used those features to redesign the Oil Port Channel at 45° which was really needed to install the fitting. The old fitting did not have enough throughput on the oil volume so larger fittings had to be introduced.
Aside from the larger fitting result, was getting the surfaces to match up without counter-boring the sealing faces into the model. A little Inventor surface work was done and while it took more than the 5 minutes I wanted to spend, it resulted in a great surfaces geometry article.
Actuator Access Plugs (Blue)
The original design was scrapped when producing the actual threads for the 3D Printing process. The material was going to be quite thin on the upper edge, and I could see the thing chipping, and any such occurrence would cause the seals to fail. This area is designed wet, and so those O-Rings need a good mating surface. A new thread and plug were evaluated and as a result, another great article is coming about threading geometry in Inventor.
The new plug is designed from a 3/8” UNF cap screw, turned down and truncated top and bottom. The O-Ring evaluated is a 1/4” stretched to hit the right size and shape.
Check back for the resulting articles after I get some things written that I picked up while at AU.
