Cable Conduit Clip
Cable Conduit Clip
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Summary
Summary
A latching and cable system for a teleoperated industrial robot. (This project is under a NDA with PA Consulting, all images are my own)
Project requirements:
1. Retain electrical cable conduit during robot's actuation
2. Allow for full range of motion of the robot
3. Maintain ingress protection rating (IP 65)
4. Locate conduit along its length
5. No tools required to lock and unlock
6. Withstand 100lbf static load
Sector: Industrial Robotics
Software: SolidWorks, Python
Manufacturing: CNC, 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, Injection Molding
Project Time: 5 weeks (6 month co-op)
Design Process
Design Process
To better understand the requirements, I created a simple prototype using a bicycle wheel, off-the-shelf clips, and an office chair. This prototype revealed the following:
• 17” - 24” conduit length required
• Must allow for axial rotation
• Cables fit and don’t add stiffness to the conduit
Iteration
Iteration
Next, two different supports were designed based on competing trade offs and shifting design parameters. The support needed to fulfill the following requirements: 3. Maintain ingress protection rating (IP 65) and 6. Withstand 100lbf static load.
The top was designed using cantilever beam hand calcs, had little internal room for the bracket and major ingress protection complications which would involve sealing fasteners, o-ring clip, locating feature.
For the bottom I incorporated ribs and a thicker injection molded housing which FEA showed resultant factor of safety of 1.3 and no ingress. Making it viable to move forward with.
Solution
Solution
The electrical conduit latching system used a cam to compress a piece of rubber and create spring locking action. It fulfills all of the requirements and gave me experience with DFM and DFA through injection molding, tolerances, poka-yoke, material selection, etc.
It was a fun project with the most puzzling pieces being the support structure and cam handle. The final result was a sturdy and easy to use clip that securely fastens the robots’ cable conduit.
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