On May 23, we started designing a t-slotted aluminum safety enclosure for a specified work envelope. (If you need a quick refresher, head over to
Part One)
Now that the overall structure has been designed, we can move to the next step. We will now go through the process of adding the doors and additional hardware that is required.
Designing the Doors.
As stated in the job requirements, we need two doors on opposite sides. Doors help give maintenance access without requiring disassembly.
We will use the 1515-Lite extrusion for the doors, since it is both lightweight and cost-effective.
- Measure the Height and Width of the door opening.
- 33.00" by 33.00 "
- For the door to open smoothly we will need to leave a small gap between the door and the frame.
- Design and Assembly Process:
- Hinge side: 1/16"
- All other sides: 1/8"
- Vertical Extrusion Length: Opening - top gap - bottom gap. 33-.125-.125 = 32.75"
- Horizontal Extrusion Length: Opening - Hinge Gap - Handle Side Gap - 2*Vertical extrusion Width (15 series is 1.5"). 33-.063-.125-2*1.5=29.812"
- Anchor Fasteners counterbores (80/20 Part #7040) are machined into Slot "A" on both ends of each horizontal extrusion. Catalog Page 567
- Using the anchor fasteners, attach the horizontals to the verticals with anchor fasteners pointing outward. This will help eliminate additional machining on the panels.
- Attach two 80/20 Part #2106 (pg 357) hinges to right vertical
- Attach 80/20 Part #2061 Handle to opposite vertical.
- Now that the door is complete we can attach it to the frame.
80/20 Design Tip: Create different colored layers in AutoCad to help differentiate between different parts, i.e. blue for doors and green for hinges.
That concludes the second part of "Designing an 80/20 Aluminum Extrusion Guard". In part there, we will step through adding the panels and finalize the frame. If you have any questions, comments or would like more detail, please let us know.