NASA Clamp Challenge Slide Clamp

grabcad

This is a clamp I came up with for the challenge that one part slides from one end into the other half of the clamp. The pieces are held together from separating from pulling force by a dovetail design on the slides. The slides also lock the top clamp to the bottom one by the arch in the slide. The arch goes slightly over center and back and when the parts are fully together they also snap into place because of the travel of the arch going over center.The angle of the arched, dovetailed keyways also helps pull the parts tighter together over the rail as they are pushed together. The two parts print within the area guidelines and are printed up in the Z direction, which also makes the grain direction of the print better for pull strength. The big thing also, is that the parts print with no material support that would have to be trimmed and discarded after printing. I printed the design to test it out and the top half slides into the bottom half, tightens up, clicks into place, and grips the rail tightly. I want to also do some load testing on the parts when I get the chance because they are very rigid and will support a lot. Overall I was happy with the results and think it a simple, printable, easy to use design that is very strong. Update as of 3/12/15: I added pictures of the testing of my clamp design showing the weight added to it. There were 4X 42 pound weights and 1X 11 1/2 pound weight (from my pulling tractor) for a total of 179 1/2 pounds of weight. I would have added more but I ran out of room as seen in the pictures. The clamp did not deflect at all and would have easily held much much more weight. If I get time I will add more weight to it but that proved to me that the design and the ABS material, not even printed solid, will definitely hold the required weight. It was a fun project to do and worked very well.