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    Snap Latches Design

    Uploaded by

    Saurav Kumar
    Snaps provide an easy assembly and disassembly method for plastic parts. They consist of a cantilever beam that deflects to snap into a mating groove. The disassembly force depends on the coefficient of friction of the plastics, which ranges from 0.3 to 0.6. There is a self-locking angle where the parts cannot be pulled apart without deflecting the beam, ranging from 73° for low friction plastics to 59° for high friction plastics. Snap design must consider the material properties to avoid plastic deformation or breakage during assembly and disassembly.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Snap Latches Design

    Uploaded by

    Saurav Kumar
    70 views3 pages
    Snaps provide an easy assembly and disassembly method for plastic parts. They consist of a cantilever beam that deflects to snap into a mating groove. The disassembly force depends on the coefficient of friction of the plastics, which ranges from 0.3 to 0.6. There is a self-locking angle where the parts cannot be pulled apart without deflecting the beam, ranging from 73° for low friction plastics to 59° for high friction plastics. Snap design must consider the material properties to avoid plastic deformation or breakage during assembly and disassembly.

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    snap latches design

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    Snaps provide an easy assembly and disassembly method for plastic parts. They consist of a cantilever beam that deflects to snap into a mating groove. The disassembly force depends on the coefficient of friction of the plastics, which ranges from 0.3 to 0.6. There is a self-locking angle where the parts cannot be pulled apart without deflecting the beam, ranging from 73° for low friction plastics to 59° for high friction plastics. Snap design must consider the material properties to avoid plastic deformation or breakage during assembly and disassembly.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    70 views3 pages

    Snap Latches Design

    Uploaded by

    Saurav Kumar
    Snaps provide an easy assembly and disassembly method for plastic parts. They consist of a cantilever beam that deflects to snap into a mating groove. The disassembly force depends on the coefficient of friction of the plastics, which ranges from 0.3 to 0.6. There is a self-locking angle where the parts cannot be pulled apart without deflecting the beam, ranging from 73° for low friction plastics to 59° for high friction plastics. Snap design must consider the material properties to avoid plastic deformation or breakage during assembly and disassembly.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    SNAP LATCHES

    Snaps allow an easy method of assembly and disassembly of plastic parts. Snaps consist of a cantilever beam with a bump 
    that deflects and snaps into a groove or a slot in the mating part. 

    Snaps can have a uniform cross‐section or a tapered cross section (with decreasing section height). The tapered cross‐
    section results in a smaller strain compared to the uniform cross‐section. Here we consider the general case of a beam 
    tapering in both directions. 

    1 of 3
    The disassembly force is a function of the coefficient of friction, which ranges from 0.3 to 0.6 for most plastics. The 
    coefficient of friction also varies with the surface roughness. The rougher the surface, the higher the coefficient of friction. 

    There is an angle at which the mating parts cannot be pulled apart. This is known as the self‐locking angle. If the angle of the 
    snap is less than this angle, then the assembly can be disassembled by a certain force given by the above formula. 

    The self‐locking angle a = tan‐1(1/µ) 

    where µ is the coefficient of friction which ranges from 0.3 to 0.6 for most plastics. 

    This computes to angles ranging from 73° for low coefficient of friction plastics to 59° for high coefficient of friction plastics. 

    If this angle is exceeded then the snaps will not pull apart unless the snap beam is deflected by some other means such as a 
    release tool. 

    This property can be used to advantage depending on the objective of using the snaps. If the snaps are to be used in the 
    factory for assembly only (never to be disassembled by the end user), then the ramp angle the self‐locking angle should be 
    exceeded. If the user is expected to disassemble (to change batteries in a toy for example), then the angle should not be 
    exceeded. 

    Tooling for snaps is often expensive and long lead time due to 
    ‐  
    The iterations required achieving the proper fit in terms of over travel. The amount of over travel is a design issue. This will 
    control how easy it is to assemble, and how much the mated parts can rattle in assembly. This rattle can be minimized by 
    reducing the over travel or designing in a preload to use the plastic's elastic properties. However, plastics tend to creep 
    under load, so preloading is to be avoided unless there is no other option.

    2 of 3
    Often, side action tooling (cam actuated) is required. This increases the mold costs and lead times.Cam actuated tooling can 
    be avoided if bypass coring can be used that results in an opening in the part to allow the coring to form the step.

    Some common problems of using snaps:‐
    ‐  Too high a deflection causing plastic deformation (set) of the latch (the moving member). Care has to be taken that the 
    latch does not take a set. Otherwise, the amount of latch engagement could reduce, reducing the force to disassemble. If 
    the set is bad enough the engagement might even fail.   
    ‐  
    The moving arm could break at the pivot point due to too high a bending stress. This can be avoided by adhering to the 
    design principles and not exceed the yield strength of the material‐in fact it should be kept well below the yield strength 
    depending on the safety factor used.
    ‐  
    Too much over travel leads to a sloppy fit between mating parts resulting in loose assemblies that can rattle. 
     
    Good snap design practices

    ‐  Design the latch taking into account the maximum strain encountered at maximum deflection.
    ‐  In general, long latches are more forgiving of design errors than short latches for the same amount of deflection, because 
    of the reduced bending strain.
    ‐   Build mold tooling with "tool safe condition". By this we mean that the deflection or over travel, or length of engagement 
    can be changed easily by machining away mold tooling, rather than add material to mold tooling, which is more expensive 
    and not good mold practice. This "safe" condition allows for a couple of tooling iterations of the latch, until the snap action is 
    considered acceptable.  

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