torsion spring 1

[gwenn]

Hi all,

I am trying to create a torsion spring with a deflection angle. But i can't seem to get the 2 ends be at an angle, rather than just starting and ending at the same plane.

Can someone help me out? Thanks!

Gwen

 

[mjcole]

Q. Are you doing a helical sweep as the coil part of the spring? If so make the helical sweep trajectory a length multiple of the pitch. If you want a spring with 1 loop and the ends to be 90deg apart the trajectory length would be pitch*1.25.

If you are using a VarSecSwp then you want to sketch a construction circle with multiple arcs with equal angles and radii. for the type of spring I mentioned above you could sketch two arcs each with an angle dim of (450/2).
If you wanted two spring loops and an angle of 90deg between ends you would need 3 arcs or #loops plus one.

If you are using another method to create your spring please let me know if not please clarify your question.

Michael

 

[gwenn]

Michael,

I was using the helical sweep and i did what you told me to and i got what i wanted. Thank you!!

gwen

 

[gwenn]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble with the torsion spring again. i need to create a torsion spring that has a deflected angle. I managed to do that by using Michael's suggestion- changing the length of the spring. My pitch value = diameter of the cross section. But i can't add the ends. If it's normal to axis, the end protrusions will overlap the spring and WF2 is not allowing me to do that. If i have it normal to traj, i don't know how to add the ends since i can't pick any datum plans to be my sketch reference.

Is there any other way i can construct this torsion spring? Or is it something i am doing not right?

Thanks!

 

[mjcole]

Gwen,

If you want to have the ends of the spring normal to the helix It will probably involve less work with a Variable section sweep which was my other suggestion. an even easier way which seems to match the way you are creating the spring would be to do a curve by equation to get the trajectory for the spring coil and use a swept blend making a plane normal to the helix at the end point.

This method would give you faces normal to the helix at the ends that you could do extrusions from.

/*Curve by equation for helix with Rad 2
/*angle of 90 between ends
/*And height equal to swept blend trajectory
R=2
H=helix height
x=R*cos(540*t)
y=R*sin(540*t)
z=H*t

Then create the Sweep normal to traj or use a swept blend and sketch the circle or xsec at each end point if using a swept blend.

Michael

 

[gwenn]

Thanks Michael! i'm not familiar with both creating curve from equation and swept blend. But i'll find some tutorial to read up and try as you suggest. Thanks!

Gwen