Tolerance Analysis Supports Tolerance Assignment

This work presents a method to support product design, since it shows how to use together tolerance assignment and analysis for choosing among different set of tolerances assigned to the same product. It starts from tolerance assignment that produces different sets of tolerances for the product components which are all acceptable from a functional point of view. It translates each assigned set of tolerances into one or more groups of tolerances that are recognized by the software used for tolerance analysis. Therefore, the software for tolerance analysis is applied to each group of tolerances by means of a Monte Carlo simulation approach. Finally, the obtained results are intersected or compounded to obtain the trend of product functional requirements that allows to identify the best set of tolerances assigned to the product components. The developed method was applied to a skillet, a platform of an industrial plant that is made of five parts connected by screws. The obtained results show how the developed new method is a valid tool to support design for industrial application.

Tolerance Analysis and Allocation for Design of a Self-Aligning Coupling Assembly Using Tolerance-Maps

A self-aligning coupling is used as a vehicle to show that the Tolerance-Map (T-Map) mathematical model for geometric tolerances can distinguish between related and unrelated actual mating envelopes as described in the ASME/ISO standards. The coupling example illustrates how T-Maps (Patent No. 6963824) may be used for tolerance assignment during design of assemblies that contain non-congruent features in contact. Both worst-case and statistical measures are obtained for the variation in alignment of the axes of the two engaged parts of the coupling in terms of the tolerances. The statistical study is limited to contributions from the geometry of toleranced features and their tolerance-zones. Although contributions from characteristics of manufacturing machinery are presumed to be uniform, the method described in the paper is robust enough to include different types of manufacturing bias in the future. An important result is that any misalignment in the coupling depends only on tolerances, not on any dimension of the coupling.

Statistical Tolerance Allocation for Tab-Slot Assemblies Utilizing Tolerance-Maps

A new mathematical model for representing the geometric variations of tabs/slots is extended to include probabilistic representations of 1D clearance. The 1D clearance can be determined from multidimensional variations of the medial-plane for a slot or a tab, and from variations of both medial-planes in a tab-slot assembly. The model is compatible with the ASME/ANSI/ISO Standards for geometric tolerances. Central to the new model is a Tolerance-Map (Patent No. 6963824) (T-Map), a hypothetical volume of points that models the range of 3D variations in location and orientation for a segment of a plane (the medial-plane), which can arise from tolerances on size, position, orientation, and form. Here it is extended to model the increases in yield that occur when the optional maximum material condition (MMC) is specified and when tolerances are assigned statistically rather than on a worst-case basis. The frequency distribution of 1D clearance is decomposed into manufacturing bias, i.e., toward certain regions of a Tolerance-Map, and into a geometric bias that can be computed from the geometry of multidimensional T-Maps. Although the probabilistic representation in this paper is built from geometric bias, and it is presumed that manufacturing bias is uniform, the method is robust enough to include manufacturing bias in the future. Geometric bias alone shows a greater likelihood of small clearances than large clearances between an assembled tab and slot. A comparison is made between the effects of specifying the optional MMC and not specifying it with the tolerance that determines the allowable variations in position of a tab, a slot, or of both in a tab-slot assembly. Statistical tolerance assignment for the tab-slot assembly is computed based on initial worst-case tolerances and for (a) constant size of tab and slot at maximum material condition, and (b) constant virtual-condition size.