On Friday, I went over the procedure for creating the forming tool for the stapler anvil. Today, as a special Sunday post, I will go over the rest of the anvil. The anvil will be made as a sheet metal component so we can use the forming tool that was created on Friday.

Creating the Base Part

Using the image below as reference, create the sketch on the Top plane in a new part file. The profile outline is made up of four tangent arcs. Each side was made symmetrical by selecting the two opposite arcs and a construction line while holding CTRL then selecting the Symmetric relationship. It is only necessary to add the dimensions shown to fully define the sketch. To dimension to the outside of the arc, hold the SHIFT button selecting the arcs.

After creating the sketch, the sheet metal part must be created. In the Sheet Metal toolbar, or Insert – > Sheet Metal , select Base-Flange.

In the Sheet Metal PropertyManager, enter .029″ as the material thickness in the Sheet Metal Parameters section.

Create the Rivet Hole

When we add the anvil to the actual stapler assembly, it will be held into place with a rivet that we will create next Friday. Create a sketch on the top face of the Base-Flange and make a circle at the sketch origin. Add the dimension of .125″ for the circle diameter.

Cut-Extrude the hole with Link to Thickness selected in the Direction1 Section of the Extrude PropertyManager.

Adding the Anvil Forms

Now it is time to add the forms we created on Friday. Before the forms can be added to the part, you must add them to a Forming Tool folder in the Design Library. For more information, check out: Building a stapler – Arm Bracket (Forming Tools). After adding the form tool to the Design Library it can be added to the Base-Flange by dragging it from the library directly onto the top face of the part. Define the location of the form as shown below.

After defining the first form, add a second form to the top face. In the view below you will see that I have shown the sketch for the first form, from the FeatureManager. This is so I can create a Collinear reference for the horizontal lines. All that is left to do is add the .325″ dimension to fully define the sketch.

Now add the other side forms to the top face of the part. These forms guide the actual stapler prongs to form in , where the other forms cause the prongs to form out.

Using the same method as before, make the two horizontal lines of the sketches Collinear and add the dimension to fully define the sketch.

If all went well the part should like like this. You will notice that the outer forms extend beyond the edges of the original part, the extended portion will need to be trimmed off before the part is complete.

Trim of Excess Material from Form.

Create a new sketch on the top face of the part again and the entities required to trace the outside edge of the part. I selected the original sketch for the Base-Flange in the FeatureManager and selected Convert Entities to create the new sketch.

If you try to cut-extrude the sketch you will be prompted with the following message.

To correctly trim off the excess form material from the created sketch, select Flip Side to cut and deselect Normal cut in the PropertyManager. Flip Side to cut will trim everything outside the outline of the sketch we created and deselecting Normal cut allows you to cut forms since they are not normal geometry.

Make sure that the excess material is highlighted prior to accepting the cut. If the material on the inside of the sketch is highlighted, Flip side to cut is probably not selected.

Now the part complete.

So What Did We Learn?

Well, I learned the true meaning of Christmas…oops. Well we didn’t really cover anything that I haven’t covered in previous articles. Sometimes, it is nice to see the same information presented in different ways to really hammer home the point. As always, the model’s created are available for download, Anvil, Stapler (706), if your interested in seeing how the part was actually created. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I will be tomorrow for the start of another week.

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