1/6/03
Seatbelt III

One of the great things about this website is the access to some very talented people with offers to help on my car. Mike Sewell is one such person. Mike is an “Engineering and Quality Control Manager” for Doran Manufacturing, a sheetmetal fabrication facility in Connecticut, who offered to help on my seatbelt anchors.

I was going to do some measuring and send Mike a drawing of what I needed, but when he offered to come over and do it for me, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It’s always better to get a second opinion when it comes to having something fabricated, especially when the other person is more knowledgeable than me! Having Mike see what I was dealing with insured what was being made would fit perfectly, and would be strong enough for a seatbelt anchor.

In a few days, Mike sent me pictures of his progress at work. His comments are in Italics

I used the cardboard template we used to layout the bracket configuration to make up a simple CAD drawing. From that drawing it was imported into a programming package that was used to generate the NC code or program for both a right and left side brackets. This NC program defines the cutting parameters for both the part configuration and the machine settings.

The brackets were cut on a 4000 watt CO2 laser utilizing this NC program.
http://www.trumpf.com/3.img-cust/TC-L-2530_E.pdf

From laser cutting, the parts were deburred to remove all the sharp edges and then formed on a press brake. The CAD drawing that was originally made up was also used to define the dimensions during bending process.
http://www.trumpf.com/3.img-cust/TrumaBend-V-Serie_E.pdf

Two 7/16-20 nuts were welded into position on each bracket.

A small chamfer was machined onto the inward face of the brackets at the mounting holes to hopefully make it a little easier to install the hardware that will be hard to see come time of assembly.

After these pieces were made up, Mike  put them in the mail to me. I can’t wait to see them!
 

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