Blog Post 22: Preliminary FEA for Design Concept 3 - Handle v2

Here is the first round of FEA carried out on the second handle iteration for Concept 3:

Recalculating Handle Force:

Seeing as the dimensions of handle v2 are considerable smaller than that of the first version, I have recalculated the required handle force in an effort to make the following FEA results as accurate as possible. The same process was used here as it was in the handle v1 calculations.

You can see from the FEA results above that despite being significantly smaller than v1, no material failure occurred when the 116.2 N of simulated downward force was applied, there were even areas of little to no stress perfect for material reduction at the front of the handle. With this design being 42% lighter than its predecessor it is the obvious choice to adopt it moving forward. The new handle’s shorter arms do mean that the force required to output the same amount of torque in the gripper is 29 N greater than its previous version, this isn't not a concern though seeing as 116 N of downward force is comparable to resting a 12 kg mass on the handle, which is feasible for the end user given that they will likely be using a considerable amount of body weight to operate these devices.

To do:

• Reduce obsolete material, particularly from the front of the handle.