How to handle purchased assemblies using teamcenter in machine design

[cmarcum]

Hi All,

My group is in the early stages of using NX and moving to Teamcenter and we are starting to develop standards and I'm wording how people handle this:

We design equipment that has high usage of purchased components that are downloaded from suppliers as assemblies. Example: Pneumatic Cylinder.

The machine may use assembly arrangements to show this cylinder in different stroke positions.

I'd like to only have to put one file in teamcenter instead of the 6 or 8 parts that make up a cylinder.

I'm thinking something like import step and with "flatten assembly" and make the cylinder one part file and use bodies but that may make it harder to work with in the machine assembly.

How do others handle situations like this?

Thanks,
Carl

 

[looslib]

In order to use arrangements to show a cylinder in different positions, you need it in NX as an assembly.

Isolate your purchased components to folders.
Use subfolders for assembly components.
Build your arrangements in such a way that you know where they go.

Example: 1" rod cylinder with 24" stroke
Assembly Part Number: 123456-1-24.prt
Component Part numbers: 123456-1-24-01.prt, 12346-1-24-02.prt, 123456-1-24-03.prt, etc.
For the various arrangements, use the assembly number and a sequence: 456789-01, 456789-02, 987654-01, etc


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[cmarcum]

Thanks Ben,

Just to be clear, I probably won't use arrangements in the cylinder, but maybe not constrain the stroke and use a position override in the machine assembly. I would like to avoid having everyone that later needs to use this component having to modify it.

I'm also thinking if I can't get away with a monolithic part, I could get it down to 2 parts and their assembly by flattening the cylinder body components separately and the rod/piston together.

There is still the issue of additional parts going into Teamcenter that aren't of individual use and need all of the extra attributes added for our TC object model but we may have to live with it for components like this.

Thanks, again,
Carl

 

[Toost]

In this case, the Override Position is the correct way to go, and not the arrangements method.
You need 2 components ( Piston + cylinder) and 1 cylinder assembly.

The arrangements method requires that you create an arrangement for each piston stroke position, in the cylinder assembly. Then the assembly where the cylinder assembly is used will "call" the individual arrangement from the cylinder assembly.

The override position method stores the "piston position" in the assembly where the complete cylinder is used. - The cylinder assembly is not modified at all.

Regards,
Tomas

 

[cmarcum]

Apologies if this should be a new thread.

How do Teamcenter users deal with single part things like springs or o-rings that take different shapes depending on the assembly?

Is there a way to handle the change (length of spring or id of o-ring) at the assembly level and not keep modifying the part file or adding to a family table?

Thanks,
Carl

 

[jpetach]

Carl,

IN both TC or unmanaged ("native") mode...

The read-only component part can be varied to suit the context requirements in the owning (writable) assembly via deformable components and (or) position overrides as Tomas mentioned.

See [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=260618[/url] or search for "deform".

HTH,
Joe

 

[cmarcum]

Joe,

That thread link did it !!

The deformable hinge and the deformable gas spring are both examples of parts that are moving assemblies in real life and single part files that can move in the context of the assembly.

Also answers my question of the springs and o-rings.

Deformable part is the key I was looking for.

Thanks,
Carl