Thick Fold (A Radiused Fold Spanning > 1 Element)

Thick Fold (A Radiused Fold Spanning > 1 Element)

Thick folds are used when the mesh is extremely fine or when there are a large number of layers to be folded. In general the element size should be smaller than the fold radius or it is unlikely that a satisfactory fold will be created.

As this figure shows the effect is to create a radiused fold, using several elements, giving an effect similar to rolling the mesh round a circular former of the given radius.

The adjacent figure shows the fold creation menu - the material has been folded from right to left and the folded material is folded on top of the unfolded material. The only option which is available for a thick fold is the angle. In this figure the angle is set to 180 . The thick fold does not have a precise centre like the thin fold, but it does allow for arbitrary angles of orientation.

Usually, a fold point is located towards the packaging limits of a airbag. In this fold, the fold point is offset ahead of the centre point for the fold by the radius. The radius is equal to half the separation distance between layers. If more precise control over the selection of elements for this fold is needed, then the advanced set selection option in SETS AND LAYERS can be used to select the portion of the airbag to be folded. The unfolded set is used only to determine clearances in this fold type.