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DOG HOUSE
Dog house is an engineering feature used in plastic trim design. Dog
houses are used as supporting feature. Sometimes other engineering
features like snaps; locators etc. are mounded on them to increase their
strength.

Dog houses are subjected to draft analysis to prevent breakage of the

component during ejection from mould cavity. Dog house and other
engineering components are built on B-surface.

Fig.1. photographic view of dog house made in CATIA

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1.1 DESIGN CONSIDERATION FOR PLASTICS
1.1.1 Wall thickness must be maintained uniform
Thick sections waste material and are simply uneconomic. So solid
shapes that would do the job well in wood or metal must be transformed
to a 'shell' form in plastics. This is done by hollowing out or 'coring' thick
parts so you are left with a component which regardless of complexity is
composed essentially of relatively thin walls joined by curves, angles,
corners, ribs, steps and offsets. As far as possible, all these walls should
be the same thickness. Wall thickness guide range is 0.75 mm to 3 mm
for reinforced materials 0.5 mm to 5 mm for unreinforced materials

1.1.2 Corner radii

Properly designed corners will make a big difference to the quality,
strength and dimensional accuracy of a moulding. But there is another
benefit too. Smooth curved corners help plastic flow in the mould by
reducing pressure drops in the cavity and minimising flow-front break-up.
Internal radii should be at least 0.5 and preferably 0.6 to 0.75 times the
wall thickness

1.1.3 Draft angle

Tooling must be cleared for easy ejection of the component, from the
core cavity. In order to clear tooling certain value of draft is given to the
component. Minimum of 2-3deg is provides on all plastic components.

1.2DESIGN CONSIDERATION FOR CREATING DOG HOUSE

Wall thickness = 0.70 x Thickness of the plastic material

Fillet on the inner side = 0.25 x Thickness of the plastic material

Fillet on the outer side = 1.25 x Thickness of the plastic material

Fillet on the coring edges = 0.25 x Thickness of the plastic material

Coring thickness = 0.40 x Thickness of the plastic material

Draft angle 2deg to 3deg

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1.3 STEPS INVOLVED IN CREATING DOG HOUSE:
Following are the sequence to create DOG HOUSE on a given plastic
body. Assume the thickness of plastic to be 10mm

STEP 1: Open CATIA V5 R21 either from desktop or RUN by typing

CNEXT.

STEP 2: Open a new part document from start menu. Name the file
as DOG_HOUSE (part module).

STEP 3: Hide the given planes and create an axis system (Axis
System.1) with a point as origin (Point.1) and rename the
geometrical set as TOOLING.

STEP 4: create tooling direction, Line.1 and Line.2 (yellow dotted line)

Fig.2. creating tooling direction

STEP 5: Create two bodies and rename them as DOG_HOUSE_1

and DG_1.1. Define DG_1.1 and insert sketch. Sketch
positioning parameters are selected as shown in the figure

Fig.3. sketch positioning

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 STEP 6: The sketch made is pad to a certain height as shown in
figure below

Fig.4. sketch definition Fig.5. pad definition

STEP 7: Leaving the face along the lifter, other three vertical faces of
the pad component (Pad.3) are drafted inwards, as shown in
the figure.5. Draft angle is maintained between 20 to 30.
(Give Tooling Direction as pulling direction).

Draft again the faces parallel to the zx plane, inwards as

shown in the figure.6 (Give lifter as pulling direction).

Fig.6. draft definition (vertical faces) Fig.7. draft definition (zx plane)
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STEP 8: The component is then subjected to shell definition. It is
noted that the shell does not exceed the design relation.

“Wall thickness = 0.70 x Thickness of the plastic material”

In some cases the wall thickness of the dog house is

maintained as same as the plastic body.

Fig.8. shell definition

STEP 9: Draft the upper wall of the inner surface of the Dog House, to
provide easy ejection of the component during manufacturing
process. Draft angle is maintained between 20 to 30.

Fig.9. draft definition

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STEP 10: Creating fillet is the last step in the body DG_1.1. Fillets are
created on both inner and outer side. The following relation is
maintained to create fillet.

“Fillet on the inner side = 0.25 x Thickness of the plastic material”

“Fillet on the outer side = 1.25 x Thickness of the plastic material”

Fig.10. fillet on the inner side Fig.11. fillet on the inner side

STEP 11: Body DG_1.1, is copied and pasted defining

DOG_HOUSE_1. Body DG_1.1 is hided and the pasted
DG_1.1 s renamed as DG_1.2.

Fig.12. creating DG_1.2

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STEP 12: The selected operations in the figure below are deleted to
create coring. The sketch inside DG_1.2 is replaced with the
sketch from DG_1.1 with link.

Fig.13. operations to be deleted

STEP 13: Fillet is made and the three vertical faces excluding the face
along to the lifter. Thickness of the face is reduced to the
below expression

“Fillet on the coring edges = 0.25 x Thickness of the plastic material”

“Coring thickness = 0.40 x Thickness of the plastic material”

Fig.14. edge fillet definition Fig.15. thickness definition

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STEP 14: The plastic surface is extracted for offsetting using multiple
extract option which is available in the GENERATIVE
SHAPE DESIGN (GSD) module. The offset value is directly
proportional to the coring height. Coring height is generally
maintained between 2 to 3mm. The geometrical set named
as tooling previously is changed to ENG_FEATRUE

Fig.16. multiple extract definition Fig.17. offset definition

STEP 14: The created offset surface is used to split the body, as
shown in the figure below. Split is available in PART module
under surface based features

Fig.18. split definition

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STEP 14: Fillet is created as per the relation discussed previously. The
below figure shows the fillet definition

Fig.19. coring fillet definition

STEP 15: when both the bodies DG_1.1 and DG_1.2 are unhidden a
similar product is obtained as in figure

Fig.20. DG_1.1 and DG_1.2 before Boolean operation

STEP 16: The following operation is performed to obtain final

component

I. BODY DG_1.2 is removed from BODY DG_1.1. By

II. The resultant body is assembled with DOG_HOUSE_1.
III. Later the assembled body is union trimmed with PLASTIC
BODY. Followed by filleting between coring and main body.

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 Fig.21. remove (Boolean) operation Fig.22. union trim(Boolean) operation

Fig.23. fillet definition between coring Fig.24. DOG_HOUSE

and main body

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1.4 STEPS INVOLVED IN PERFORMING FEATURE DRAFT
ANALYSIS FOR DOG HOUSE:
Draft analysis is performed to check whether the component is drafted
completely. Draft is performed for easy ejection of plastic component
during the process of injection moulding. Following are the sequence of
operation for draft analysis.

STEP 1: Before performing draft analysis note should be made that

the VIEW is set to MATERIAL MODE. Select the draft
analysis from INSERT -> ANALYSIS -> FEATURE DRAFT
ANALYSIS.

STEP 2: select feature draft analysis from analysis and select HIDE
OR SHOW THE COLOUR SCALE and set the value of
green to 0.48deg and red to 0deg. 0.48deg represents the
maximum draft angle.

Fig.25. draft analysis

STEP 3: Drag the compass and set it on the ‘Tooling Direction’. Use
the compass to select new draft direction and reorient the
compass direction then select the solid on which feature draft
analysis is to be performed. If the orientation of the compass
is inverted select the inverse direction command in the draft
analysis. The green colour in the figure below represents that
the component has cleared draft analysis in the ‘Tooling
Direction’ direction.

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 Once the analysis is made the draft analysis is saved in tree
as Draft Analysis.1 under Free Form Analysis.1.

Fig.26. draft analysis in Tooling Direction direction

STEP 4: Drag the compass and set it on the ‘lifter’. Use the compass
to select new draft direction and reorient the compass
direction then select the solid on which feature draft analysis
is to be performed. If the orientation of the compass is
inverted select the inverse direction command in the draft
analysis. The green colour in the figure below represents that
the component has cleared draft analysis in the ‘lifter’
direction.

Once the analysis is made the draft analysis is saved in tree

as Draft Analysis.2 under Free Form Analysis.1.

Fig.27. draft analysis in lifter direction

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1.5 PARTING LINE:
A parting line is the line of separation on the part where the two halves
of the mould meet. The line actually indicates the parting plane that
passes through the part. While on simple parts this plane can be a
simple, flat surface, it is often a complex form that traces the perimeter of
the part around the various features that make up the part’s outer
silhouette. Part lines can also occur where any two pieces of a mould
meet. This can include side action pins, tool inserts and shutoffs. Parting
lines cannot be avoided; every part has them. Keep in mind when
designing your part that the melt will always flow towards the parting line
because it is the easiest place for the displaced air to escape or “vent”.
Parting lines are generally created where the green and blue colour
meets.

STEP 1: Create a new geometrical set, name it as PARTING_LINE

and provide unique property, such as colour line thickness
and line type. Define the geometrical set in work object
before proceeding with next operation.

Fig.28.creating geometrical set

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 STEP 2: Select Multiple Extract and set propagation type as
tangency continuity. Select the outer edge as element.

Fig.29. multiple extract definition Fig.30. parting line (magenta)

for creating parting line

STEP 3: Creating lifter travel plays an important role in designing

DOG HOUSE. Lifter travel is provided so that the lifter does
not collide with the other plastic or plastic components. It is
noted that lifter travel does not exceed the relation given
where x denotes the undercut dog house.
“LIFTER TRAVEL (mm) = 2(x) + 35

Fig.31. lifter travel (green dotted lines)

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