Software Tools Development Of Construction Machinery Drive Axle Serialization Design

With the development of 3D graphics and computer technology, using modern design method to develop new products will be necessary to suit the needs of current market. Aimed at the traditional design of drive axle for construction machinery, this paper presented combining parametric design with virtual assembly to develop drive axle design system based on the existed software support platform, so that the serialized products design of construction machinery drive axle can be carried out rapidly. The main points of the paper are follows:(1) By analyzing the structural characteristics of drive axle and the function of current relative software, Pro/E was chosen as the support platform and Pro/Toolkit as the advanced development tool. The construction scheme of the software system was determined. The whole system includes three modules: differential, main drive and wheel speed reducer;(2) Because the mathematical model and the structure of drive axle series products are almost fixed, after an assembly model of a drive axle was established, the design parameters of initial parts can be extracted by combining the 3D model with program control, and the design parameters can be modified by users to use a Pro/Toolkit program under the assembly environment. According to the new design parameters, the dimensions would be updated automatically by program so that a new part model would be completed. The whole modification process can be carried out on the basis of assembly so that the series products can be realized more rapidly and conveniently;(3) The assemble process of drive axle model was programmed in the paper. By invoking related function of Pro/Toolkit, the program can define the assembly relations in advance. During the actual operation, other related parts can be assembled at the mate position automatically in accordance with the relationships of parts in the original assembly model. The development decrease the inconvenience caused by selecting constraints manually;(4) The drive axle design system developed in this paper has a friendly, visualized man-computer interface and the rapid design function for drive axle series products. It can meet the requirement for system integration. As a result, the wasteful works would be avoided and the design efficiency could be improved greatly.