Designing a new roof cover support

[sean09]

I have been asked to improve on the central spider of the current roof cover support where I am working. The attachment shows the current design. It is three separate aluminium pieces which are held together with a 5mm screw.

Although this is a simple design I want to design something which is one piece, so labour is reduced. I am thinking something which is manufactured elsewhere which we can buy in.

This is a low production item. On average around 70 roof covers are sold per year. My first line of thought was to have the general shape cut out from sheet metal and then bent into shape. But I believe the folds needed on the six "arms" to create a space to hold the support poles is not possible.

I also want the spider arms to be capable of folding. So we can attach the support poles in house and have everything as a single unit for the end user. The most obvious idea is to have hinges to allow the arms to fold. But I fear this is adding many more parts and making the design more complex.

I just want to ask if anyone has any solutions which I may not have tried yet.

 

[sean09]

A hinge idea

 

[sean09]

My idea for single piece sheet metal design. The folds on the arms at 120 degrees are too much since the bending tool will not be able to be removed.

 

[looslib]

Labor would be increased with the hinge design.
Manufacturing cost would be increased with the hinge and single piece design.

You have a very simple design now that can be manufactured with a cutoff of the tube to length and a single punch with the proper die to flatten and pierce the hole.

What is driving you to do a redesign?


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[sean09]

Thanks for your reply looslib.

My MD is driving me to redesign lol. I am a graduate with this company and this is kind of the project I have been tasked with(I am not a student asking for answers to homework).

I can't see me being able to make it any easier for us to do here, but what I was aiming for was to improve the design and have it made elsewhere so we get the completed unit in which we can then add the support rods to.

My MD also really likes the idea of having a collapsible design which allows the spider and support arms to be one unit for the end user instead of having the end user inserting each arm individually.

I started looking into plastic and rubber. Aiming for something along the lines of the Figo cane connector but more robust (

http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/figo-universal-frame-connectors-pid4104.html).

Then I found out that they only sell approx 70 units/year of these roof covers. So injection moulding is out the window.

I don't want to go to my MD a say it's not possible as it will seem I have simple not tried. I am use to bouncing ideas off several people in a group so I can get different perspectives and try things I would never have though of on my own. That's why I thought I would post here.