Wire Spring Latch Simulation

[Anonymous]

Hello my Fusion friends!
I ran into an issue today. I have an assembly of two parts, which requires some latching mechanism. I decided to implement classic easy springy wire, which is included in virtually all computer connectors (USBs, Apple's Lightning, etc).

So I created a very simple and rough representation of what it looks like. These are two components with "slide joint" defined. I am showing a cut through these bodies so you can actually see what's going on.

Now what I want to achieve. When sliding top component to the left, the wire should move (flex) down, leave the top part slide to the end and then return to its normal position. That way the top body is latched until you develop some strength to pull it back through that steep arc. If I didn't describe it well, this mechanism can be easily seen for example on a male microUSB connector or Apple 30pin.

That's a behavior I want to simulate in Fusion 360, so that I can see where it's weak, if it's even possible in some way etc. Is there any option how to do this in F360?

Thank you.

Regards,

Radek

EDIT: I also tried defining a contact set between these two components, but it actually stops the top body when it hits the spring wire.

[Pedro_Bidarra · Accepted solution]

AFAIK, the types of joints (hence, movement) Fusion currently supports do not include flexing. For all intends and purposes, all bodies in Fusion are completely rigid without any plastic or permanent deformation.

Of course, plastic and permanent deformation are dependant on the material used and forces, so this is the domain of Finite Element Analysis, which Fusion currently doesn't have but I've seen news of it being introduced this year. FEA is present in many other software packages, but it's normally used to analyse weak points in parts. I've never seen a software that would simulate this the way you expect it.

The way I see it, the closest you can get to simulate this on Fusion is faking it via a revolution joint using the center of the fillet arcs of the spring located where the part is fixed to the bottom part.

[Pedro_Bidarra]

Correction:
I meant "elastic and plastic/permanent deformation".

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the answer. Unfortunately for me, I really couldn't figure out a way to do this, so you have to be right. However, I would definitely like this function in Fusion ASAP! 🙂 🙂