The Journeyman’s Piece Page 1 of 2

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Concept: The Journeyman’s Piece

Project Scenario
It is your task to optimize the shape of a lever to minimize its mass while still ensuring its strength. The
maximum envelope and the loading conditions are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Envelope Dimensions of the Installation Space for the

Lever

Within this given envelope, you are fully free to design the part. The surface and location where you have to
constrain the part and the position where the force is applied are fixed. At this position, a very stiff bolt is
mounted to transfer the force. The maximum dimensions of the surface to be constrained may be minimized,
but not enlarged over the envelope given, same for the axis hole. You have to ensure the strength of the part
and have two alternative material options for choice, Aluminum or Steel.

• Steel Properties:
◦ Modulus of Elasticity: 200000 MPa

◦ Poisson’s Ratio: 0.3

◦ Density: 7.8 g/cm3

◦ Yield Strength: 400 N/mm2

• Aluminum Properties:
◦ Modulus of Elasticity: 70000 MPa

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The Journeyman’s Piece Page 2 of 2

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◦ Yield Strength: 130 N/mm2

The failure criterion for both materials is Distortion Energy (von Mises stress). No safety factor is required in
this exercise.

Minimal Instructions
All tasks in this project are based on topics that you have learned up to this point in the course; therefore,
instructions for each project step are minimal. There are no step-by-step “picks and clicks” given, enabling
you to test your knowledge of the materials as you proceed through the project.

Follow the following basic exercise steps:

1. Constrain the part as shown in Figure 2 on the left surface (dimension 40x80 mm).

2. Apply the load of 15 kN as a bearing load using an attack angle of 13° as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Given Load and Constraint

3. Define a material, steel or aluminum.

4. Define and run an SPA analysis.

5. Look for critical areas. As an additional task you can modify the design in the CAD tool you use and
rerun the model iteratively, until you are satisfied with the design and the failure index is ≤1.

Try to solve the task by designing the part in a way to reach a high utilization of the material strength. Think
about what type of loading (for example, tension, compression, bending, torque) leads to an optimum
regarding this. Try to free yourself from pre-conceptions of how a lever usually looks, so that you have a good
conceptual start design of your part. A bad initial design limits the success of the subsequent mass
minimization.

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