Establishment and application of an assembly dimension model based on shortest path

This article presents a new approach for obtaining unique dimensioning for each part and building a full-dimension model of assembly dimensions by describing the formative paths of functional dimensions in an assembly. According to the structure and the functional dimensions of an assembly, as well as the principles that ‘the path should be the shortest’, ‘high precision should be given priority’ and ‘one surface can appear only once in the path graph’, the shortest path graph of the functional dimensions can be established first, ensuring that every functional dimension has minimum accumulative errors. The revised path graph is obtained by revising the shortest path graph according to structural characteristics, inspection and dimensioning regulation of parts. In this way, unique dimensioning is achieved for each part, and a full correlative dimension model can be established. A gearbox assembly and a ball screw assembly are used to verify the proposed method, but this article discusses only the assembly that is generally located in a certain direction. Over-location, planar or spatial assemblies require further research.