Washer tangent to bent tube with a hole for a shaft

Hello,

Is there a good way to constrain a flat washer against a bent tube with a
hole in it? The hole is for a shaft and is at the intersection of a large
(~4" radius) 90 degree bend in the tube. The tube is about 1 inch in
diameter. The tangent constraint will not work, I think because of the
complex surface intersection in the tube. Help!

-Lou

 

A good way? No, I don't think so, but there are some dirty ways that
work well enough.

I'm not sure I'm getting exactly the geometry you're talking about, but
here's a file that describes what I'm talking about:

http://www.dezignstuff.com/swparts/benttubesassy.zip

I made the hole go through the tube on the toroidal surface at some
compound angle not parallel to the plane of the CL of the tube because I
wasn't sure if you were talking about a simple or complex case.

I used the plane of the CL of the tube to make a silhouette Split Line
on the face of the cut. This gives me a point on the surface where the
washer will touch. Then I created a plane that sits tangent to the
surface at that point. Now you have something to mate to. Then I just
used a sketch point in the center of the washer to mate to the axis of
the hole in the tube, and all that's left is to constrain rotation,
which doesn't matter.

Then again, maybe I'm way off base. I assumed the hole is smaller than
the tube, and that the washer is flat.

 

Hello Matt,

Thanks for the info. From what your describing, it looks like a good
solution to my problem. Brute force, but a solution. I thought there might
be a more elegant method. I can't read in your example as we do not have
what appears to be Solidworks 2005 installed at work yet.

Thank you for the help!

-Lou