Ribs are a set of commonly occurring features in injection molded plastic components. They can be classified into two broad groups based on their function, viz.
- Ribs meant for the purpose of stiffening
- Ribs meant for the purpose of heat dissipation
A rib feature, as is implemented in this module is essentially characterized by the following set of relations between different topological entities:
- The rib feature can have two or more parallel planar faces separated by a small distance. This distance corresponds to the thickness of the rib. Typically this is of the order of 3-5 mm for most of the parts
- There are no restrictions imposed on the mid-plane profile of the rib. The rib type classification is to be done on the basis of this profile type
- The Ribs might have filleted edges
It is the aim of this module to recognize rib features, determine their interactions and suppress such recognized ribs.
