A Concept for Process-Oriented Interdisciplinary Tolerance Management Considering Production-Specific Deviations

Abstract

To meet rising customer requirements, increasingly complex products have to be virtually validated. To achieve this within the framework of virtual product development, a wide range of aspects has to be taken into account. In this context, tolerance analysis has established itself as a proven tool to evaluate the consequences of geometric part deviations on geometric product characteristics. Existing approaches, however, do not sufficiently take into account production-specific deviations, leading to time-consuming iterations during the product development process. Therefore, the focus of this contribution is on process-oriented interdisciplinary tolerance management that allows the integration of manufacturing simulations into the tolerance analysis. In contrast to the conventional approach, this novel methodology allows to avoid unnecessary iterations in the context of product development and validation. Following the presentation of the novel procedure, the application on a case study of an X- ray shutter is carried out, whereby surrogate models are integrated in order to reduce the computing time.

Statistical Tolerance Analysis of 3D-Printed Non-Assembly Mechanisms in Motion Using Empirical Predictive Models

“…Furthermore the number of samples N is set to 10,000 with which valid results could be achieved in prior studies in combination with reasonable computing time [7]. This enables the generation of N different virtual mechanisms, while the predictive models create a single discrete value [32]. For the N virtual non-assembly mechanisms, this results in 10,000 different coupling curves which represents the mobility band of the mechanism.…”

“…In particular in FDM, it is essential, as there is currently no specific guideline for tolerancing and hence these values have to be estimated [31]. A process-oriented prediction of part deviations and resulting joint clearances overcomes this drawback by taking the influence of the manufacturing process directly into tolerance analysis [32]. ML techniques therefore offer suitable algorithms and have already proven its applicability in the field of AM [29] and tolerance analysis [7].…”

“…The influence of deviations can thus be considered for a realistic representation of the motion behaviour. Using a certain sampling size N, the motion behaviour of N different virtual systems is realistically described [32]. The requirement or a certain quality criterion of a system on which the influence of tolerances is evaluated on its fulfilment is defined as the functional key characteristic (FKC) [40].…”

Tolerance Optimization of Patch Parameters for Locally Reinforced Composite Structures

“…Potter states that manufacturing defects, in contrast to defects resulting from the part design, can only be eliminated by manufacturing and production engineers [13]. Nonetheless, variations can be considered early during the design phase through a conscious tolerance management, where specific variations and defects from manufacturing can be addressed in a process-oriented way, as presented in [14,15]. The inclusion of manufacturing process simulations into the tolerance management enables the investigation of varying process parameters on the resulting part variations.…”

Tolerancing Informatics: Towards Automatic Tolerancing Information Processing in Geometrical Variations Management

“…In this regard, a digital framework for the real-time quality control of welded components has been proposed in [36]. Furthermore, the paradigm of process-oriented tolerancing as a means of adjusting the part tolerances in an assembly in accordance with the capability of their manufacturing processes will hugely benefit from automatic tolerancing information processing [37]. This is supported by methods to the automatic mapping of tolerancing and product manufacturing information from STEP to tessellated product geometry models [23].…”