Draincare Spring

[Anonymous]

Inventor  offers us several options to design a coil of constant pitch with a tapering diameter.  However, I am unable to create a coil with a taper and a changing pitch at the same time.

We are using Inventor 2013. I would like to produce similar parts as the attached 2D drawings in 3D, only witha changing pitch (distance between revolutions) per revolution.  Can it be done?  There is software for the CNC spring manufacturing machines to produce such parts. Therefore the proper inputs to produce these effectively and efficiently, are available somewhere.

The part I've been describing uses .09 diameter wire and has about 54 coils in about 8 inches. The starting inside diameter is about .53" and the pitch is about .27" the ending inside diameter is .109" +/- .01 with a pitch of about .091".

Here are 2D drawings of similar parts, the last (NF3) is closest to what we need.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sportsman 1953,

This can be done but it would need a VERY POWERFUL pc. I had to reduce the coil count dramatically

and its still over 10 meg so a 50 plus coil would be prohibitive.

If you need to show a "spring" in your assembly may be if you look at a dohnut shap revolve and a patten. (Or ask NASA for the loan of their mainframe - ha)

Hope this helps

Mark

Inventor 2013

[RogerMollon]

Hi Mark,

Would it be possible for you to share your ipt file, roll the EOP to the top and save it first.   We'd like to benchmark it against our Beta build.  BTW, are you in the beta program?

Thanks,

[JDMather]

For those who are not aware:

http://beta.autodesk.com

[Anonymous]

Hi Roger, heres the rolled up part model cheers Mark Inventor 2013

[Anonymous]

I am haveing issues uploading files again!

The file is rolled up and the size is 1.01MB

If it's not attached to this (I will try Firefox instead of IE) you can contact me direct from

my account e-mail and i will send it to you that way

thanks

Mark

[RogerMollon]

Mark,

We've got the file, I'll get back here with what we find out.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

One of our members was able to write a program with a button appearing on the toolbar on startup.  This program worked fine with the same format as in the Autodesk existing spring button.  Any number of coils any pitch change and any diameter changes, pumped it right out..., part file was accepted in Inventor drawing, assembly and presentation files..., However, we've upgraded to 2014 and as yet I haven't been able to get it into Inventor Pro 2014.  Hope Autodesk provides something within the software soon.  Maybe, rather than fining or penalizing anyone, Autodesk would consider offering a reward to persons for their expertise. 

We've all got a job to do..., problem is..., I can't do mine proficiently without better software.  How about, less focus on the suite and more for the mechanical side of Inventor, so we can be more efficient, within just Inventor.  These items are currently in production, The software within the CNC spring making machines are able to manufacture these items, right at the machine.  Why isn't Autodesk able to, in design software.  The ability to create any number of waves on a circular face of a hub is another area that could use some focus.

Thanks

[mpatchus]

Not sure why everyone's file size is so large.

I just created it (may not be exact, but it only took a couple minutes) in 2012 and the file is only 544K.

[Anonymous]

Here again if you didn't change the pitch (greater to smaller) as the diameter changes (greater to smaller), you haven't done the project correctly.  We can easily maintain the pitch on a taper.  Also, we can easily change the pitch in a constant diameter. The project is to do both within 50 revolutions.

Thanks 

[RogerMollon]

Mark - Our benchmark testing shows good results so I encourage you  to join the Beta Forum (via the link JDMather shared) where we can discuss details, can't talk about specifics of future releases here.  

sportsman1953 - I hope you have described your desired features in the Inventor IdeaStation: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Inventor-IdeaStation/idb-p/v1232.  If not, please do; other users can vote for them and our Product Managers will see the results.

Thank you,