Applied Mechanics and Materials ISSN: 1662-7482, Vols. 380-384, pp 132-135 doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.380-384.132 © 2013 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

Online: 2013-08-30

The Parametric Design for Hydraulic Cylinder Based on SolidWorks Wang Hongyan1, a,Han Guohui1, a, Jiang Xuemei2, a,Wang Hong2, a 1.

CEET Pinggao Group Company Limited, Henan 467001, CHN 2.

Dalian Jiaotong University, Liaoning 116028, CHN a

[email protected]

Keywords: Hydraulic Cylinder, SolidWorks, Further Development, Parameterization

Abstract. Hydraulic Cylinder is one of the most commonly used excutive components of hydraulic transmission system. Its quality is directly related to the performance of the whole design components. Based on the SolidWorks 2007 environment and theory of the parametric design with the support of rhe programming tool of Visual Basic, the digital design system for hydraulic cylinder is established, as a result, the design efficiency and quality are heightened. Introduction With the development of society and the progress of technology, hydraulic cylinder is used in almost every areas and departments as the most important execution component in operating mechanism transmission system. Since the performance of hydraulic cylinder is related to the performance of entire design components directly, the performance requirement of hydraulic cylinder in various industries of machinery industry is also higher and higher. Especially in the hydraulic operation system of high voltage switch industry and high voltage spring operating mechanism system, the requirement of hydraulic cylinder is especially accurate. The traditional design method from the product idea, expression of concept, structural design, performance analysis, to the final technical requirements and formation of manufacturing process and so on, each link all needs designers’ design knowledge to transform design requirements into the definition and expression of product structure, composition, performance parameters and manufacturing process through creative thinking process of calculation, analysis and synthesis. As a result, the design process is complex and the efficiency is low. To simplify the design and develop efficiency, the CAD technology (Computer Aided Design) is arised with the development of computer technology. So completing the design of the hydraulic cylinder efficiently and reasonably by using integrated CAD auxiliary design system technology is a effective method to improve the hydraulic system performance and the machine performance. If the enterprise can develop the CAD system of its own products by secondary development, the designer only need to input some necessary parameters according to the prompt, as a result the efficiency of design of product will be improved greatly[1]. Based on this, this article starts from the structure of hydraulic cylinder parts, with three dimensional modeling software SolidWorks as development platform and Visual Basic 6.0 as development tools. To realize the parametric design of hydraulic cylinder by calling the SolidWorks powerful API function of SolidWorks for secondary development[2]. Using this system not only makes three-dimensional entity modeling process of hydraulic cylinder easy, quick, and is advantageous to the enterprise to improve the level of the standardization of parts, but also is beneficial to reduce the financial burden on the designer's work, improve the design quality, shorten the design cycle and the innovation of hydraulic cylinder design work.

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Further development based on Solidworks SolidWorks API object model SolidWorks is a three-dimensional CAD system based on Windows with powerful capabilities of entity modeling. It provides a good environment to design personnel with parameterization and feature modeling technology, which can help completing complex product design, high performance of large-scale assembly, advanced surface modelling and design changes [3]. SolidWorks support COM technology standards and the OLE technology as well. As a COM/OLE server, SolidWorks offers a wide range of API/COM (OLE) objects, and the methods and properties belongs to these objects which realize the function customization and extension of SolidWorks and meet the professional requirements of users. SolidWorks API is a tree hierarchy structure, the call of interface to SolidWorks API implements searching step by step and traversing step by step, until the end [4]. Secondary development principle SolidWorks API is the secondary development interface of SolidWorks, which is the programming interface based on ActiveX Automation. So the SolidWorks support secondary development of VB, VC and some other softwares. Due to VB is easy to learn and use, so the design process using VB to do secondary development. Basic idea of the secondary development of Solidworks is realized by using VB in Solidworks environment, and selected a type of standard parts, drawing standard parts of the model in the correct design. When it is needed to generate another specification of standard parts, we can modify and solve the corresponding constraint relationship of already defined standard model according to the relevant bounded variables and parameters that given by user. As a result, the geometric relations or topological relation of its geometric elements and features will be changed, and caused the related graphic elements and the linkage of the relationship to generate the needed parts. Namely, the parts design using dimension driven design. The program should follow the unified standard, use the secondary development interface API function in SolidWorks themselves and VB language based on object-oriented, combined with the standard size of parts, to realize the secondary development of SolidWorks [5]. Digital hydraulic cylinder design system System overall design scheme The functional modules of software system can be divided into manipulation of the interface module, hydraulic cylinder selection module and intensity checking module, parts generated module and assembly generated module. Each module using closed loop chain structure, which contains feedback information between a module and a module. If conditions are not met, the system will report errors automatically and give the corresponding prompt. Every step of the operation has a "last step" function to help the users modifying in time. Part Modeling Soldworks object is the top-level object in SolidWorksAPI. It provides the interface to access the SolidWorks work environment for VB. The method of Create Object is used for obtaining Sldworks Object in VB, and using the activedoc method of the object can obtain the Solidworks file object. In the process of parts molding, each basic part starts from scratch to set up the initial model. Then apply different API function to different characteristics to realize stretching, rotating, invisible, mirror, sequence and some others of model characteristics. Take the parts modeling process of the cylinder barrel of hydraulic cylinder as example, the generated part drawing is shown in Fig.1.

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Fig.1 Part drawing of cylinder barrel of hydraulic cylinder Add components to the assembly after creating a new assembly documents. Call SldWorks::OpenDoc6 method to open the components that you want to add firstly, and then insert the parts into the assembly by using AssemblyDoc::addcomponent function. In the process of assemble, selected the geometry elements on coordinate geometry parts by using ModelDocExtention::SelcectByID method firstly, and then implemented fixed parts through ModelDoc::FixComponent function, so as to produce two sub assemblies respectively which are hydraulic cylinder set and the piston rod group. Finally assemble two sub assemblies to generate light lever type hydraulic cylinder assembly diagram. User interface This interface is designed according to the circle rolling design concept. The whole system window applies the chain structure. Thus the two adjacent Windows can be associated with each other and the incorrect data can be modified in time in the design process. The design interface of the System, the hydraulic cylinder assembly finally generated. In the end, movement analysis, virtual assembly, or improvements of finite element design can be done according to the three-dimensional model of hydraulic cylinder. Eventually numerical control program can be automatically generated by the CAMWORKS to manufacture finished products. Conclusions In this paper, the light tie rod hydraulic cylinder design process is studied. On the basis of detailed analysis of the structure design, secondary development for SolidWorks is done in VB programming environment with the usage of computer and SolidWorks as the platform. The parametric design of hydraulic cylinder system is established, the fuctions such as the input of the hydraulic cylinder parameters, the design of hydraulic cylinder model diagram, component size design, checking the parts and assembly drawings, and other functions are realized. It is beneficial to relieve the designer's work burden, improve the design quality, shorten the design cycle, and the innovation of hydraulic cylinder design work.

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References [1] Yang Huang. The development of the parametrized CAD system for plug door bearing parts based on Solidworks[J]. Machinery, 2003, 30(5):62~64. [2] Yuguang Zhu, Lanjuan Liu. Software development methodology[M]. Shanghai: University of Finance and Economics Press, 2001. [3] Jiansheng Wang, Shuqin Xu. The design idea of Solidworks[J]. Shanxi Machinery, 2002, 9:6~7. [4] Xiuzi Ye, Chaoxiang Chen. Advanced course of SolidWorks: Secondary development and API2007 edition[M]. Beijing: Machanical Industry Press, 2007. [5] Chengshi Zhu, Yanqiu Bao, Qiong Wu, Xiangfu Zeng. An easy method used to develop SolidWorks by VB[J]. Machinery Design and Manufacture, 2006, 10:41~42.

Vehicle, Mechatronics and Information Technologies 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.380-384

The Parametric Design for Hydraulic Cylinder Based on SolidWorks 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.380-384.132