The challenge was to design a replacement collet for a two piece retractable rod that would eliminate the rattling created when the two tubes contacted each other. The concern was applying adequate pressure on the thin tube while keeping the stress on the nylon collet at a safe level.
The solution was created using SolidWorks to design an attractive collet and then analyzing the stresses using the SolidWorks finite element analysis software module. Finally a rapid prototype part was created from the 3D model so the fit could be verified on the actual assembly.
