The Joy of Weldments

PVE-5804, Last Updated: Aug. 21, 2012, By: LRB

Solid Model of Spherical Pressure Vessel

Intermediate stair landing for a storage sphere

The SolidWorks weldment toolbox can make it easier to create complex assemblies. This intermediate stair landing for a storage sphere consists of 26 pieces. Here are two versions of this assembly. This first is built as an assembly of 15 separate parts. It was hard to build and each part had to be mated in an assembly. Updates for different sizes of storage spheres was difficult.

Solid Model of Stairway Landing

Final results as a weldment

The second version is built as one part in a weldment. 15 part files and 1 assembly are reduced down to 1 part file. The design is based on one 3D master sketch.

Sketch of Stairway Landing with Dimensions

A bit messy but good – the master sketch

The master sketch is a bit messy, but design changes are quick and easy. The time required to make the weldment was less than the time required to make the assembled version. The file is also 1/3 the size and loads much faster – very important when dealing with an assembly with multiple parts like this.