This is a school assignment.

I have a simple arm where two equal forces are applied at one end and the other end is a rolled/slider fixture.

1. I want to know how how big these forces can be without making a plastic deformation on the arm and a factor of safety = 2.
2. I also want to know if the base can handle that force. If yes then with what FOS.
3. Where can I read about interpreting simulation results? "Solidworks help" is very good when it comes to how and what to do, but not how to interpret the results.

Comments:

I have a hard time understanding FOS results. I have run the study but I can't answer my questions.

Von Mises:

Deformation:

Factor of safety for the arm. Clearly this force is way over my FOS = 2. Is this correct?