scholarly journals Statistical Tolerance Analysis—A Survey on Awareness, Use and Need in German Industry

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2622
Author(s):  
Michael S. J. Walter ◽  
Christina Klein ◽  
Björn Heling ◽  
Sandro Wartzack

The importance of geometric deviations of components for the aesthetic and functional quality of products has been undisputed for decades. So, it is not surprising that not only have numerous researchers devoted themselves to this field, but also commercial software tools for the analysis and optimization of tolerance specifications (currently already fully integrated in 3D-CAD systems) have been available for around 30 years. However, it is even more surprising that the well-founded specification of tolerances and their analysis using a so-called statistical tolerance analysis are only established in a few companies. There is thus a contradiction between the proclaimed relevance of tolerances and their actual consideration in everyday business life. Thus, the question of the significance of geometric deviations and tolerances as well as the use of statistical tolerance analysis arises. Therefore, a survey among 102 German companies was carried out. The results are presented and discussed in this paper.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1860
Author(s):  
Paul Schaechtl ◽  
Benjamin Schleich ◽  
Sandro Wartzack

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) enables the fabrication of entire non-assembly mechanisms within a single process step, making previously required assembly steps dispensable. Besides the advantages of FDM, the manufacturing of these mechanisms implies some shortcomings such as comparatively large joint clearances and geometric deviations depending on machine-specific process parameters. The current state-of-the-art concerning statistical tolerance analysis lacks in providing suitable methods for the consideration of these shortcomings, especially for 3D-printed mechanisms. Therefore, this contribution presents a novel methodology for ensuring the functionality of fully functional non-assembly mechanisms in motion by means of a statistical tolerance analysis considering geometric deviations and joint clearance. The process parameters and hence the geometric deviations are considered in terms of empirical predictive models using machine learning (ML) algorithms, which are implemented in the tolerance analysis for an early estimation of tolerances and resulting joint clearances. Missing information concerning the motion behaviour of the clearance affected joints are derived by a multi-body-simulation (MBS). The exemplarily application of the methodology to a planar 8-bar mechanism shows its applicability and benefits. The presented methodology allows evaluation of the design and the chosen process parameters of 3D-printed non-assembly mechanisms through a process-oriented tolerance analysis to fully exploit the potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in this field along with its ambition: ‘Print first time right’.


2008 ◽  
Vol 07 (01) ◽  
pp. 127-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. G. LIU ◽  
P. WANG ◽  
Z. G. LI

In statistical tolerance analysis, it is usually assumed that the statistical tolerance is normally distributed. But in practice, there are many non-normal distributions, such as uniform distribution, triangular distribution, etc. The simple way to analyze non-normal distributions is to approximately represent it with normal distribution, but the accuracy is low. Monte-Carlo simulation can analyze non-normal distributions with higher accuracy, but is time consuming. Convolution method is an accurate method to analyze statistical tolerance, but there are few reported works about it because of the difficulty. In this paper, analytical convolution is used to analyze non-normal distribution, and the probability density functions of closed loop component are obtained. Comparing with other methods, convolution method is accurate and faster.


Author(s):  
Aniket N. Chitale ◽  
Joseph K. Davidson ◽  
Jami J. Shah

The purpose of math models for tolerances is to aid a designer in assessing relationships between tolerances that contribute to variations of a dependent dimension that must be controlled to achieve some design function and which identifies a target (functional) feature. The T-Maps model for representing limits to allowable manufacturing variations is applied to identify the sensitivity of a dependent dimension to each of the contributing tolerances to the relationship. The method is to choose from a library of T-Maps the one that represents, in its own local (canonical) reference frame, each contributing feature and the tolerances specified on it; transform this T-Map to a coordinate frame centered at the target feature; obtain the accumulation T-Map for the assembly with the Minkowski sum; and fit a circumscribing functional T-Map to it. The fitting is accomplished numerically to determine the associated functional tolerance value. The sensitivity for each contributing tolerance-and-feature combination is determined by perturbing the tolerance, refitting the functional map to the accumulation map, and forming a ratio of incremental tolerance values from the two functional T-Maps. Perturbing the tolerance-feature combinations one at a time, the sensitivities for an entire stack of contributing tolerances can be built. For certain classes of loop equations, the same sensitivities result by fitting the functional T-Map to the T-Map for each feature, one-by-one, and forming the overall result as a scalar sum. Sensitivities help a designer to optimize tolerance assignments by identifying those tolerances that most strongly influence the dependent dimension at the target feature. Since the fitting of the functional T-Map is accomplished by intersection of geometric shapes, all the T-Maps are constructed with linear half-spaces.


Author(s):  
S. H. Mullins ◽  
D. C. Anderson

Abstract Presented is a method for mathematically modeling mechanical component tolerances. The method translates the semantics of ANSI Y14.5M tolerances into an algebraic form. This algebraic form is suitable for either worst-case or statistical tolerance analysis and seeks to satisfy the requirements of both dimensional metrology and design analysis and synthesis. The method is illustrated by application to datum systems, position tolerances, orientation tolerances, and size tolerances.


Procedia CIRP ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 220-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Ameta ◽  
Joseph K. Davidson ◽  
Jami J. Shah

Author(s):  
Edoh Goka ◽  
Lazhar Homri ◽  
Pierre Beaurepaire ◽  
Jean-Yves Dantan

Tolerance analysis aims toward the verification impact of the individual tolerances on the assembly and functional requirements of a mechanism. The manufactured products have several types of contact and are inherent in imperfections, which often causes the failure of the assembly and its functioning. Tolerances are, therefore, allocated to each part of the mechanism in purpose to obtain an optimal quality of the final product. Three main issues are generally defined to realize the tolerance analysis of a mechanical assembly: the geometrical deviations modeling, the geometrical behavior modeling, and the tolerance analysis techniques. In this paper, a method is proposed to realize the tolerance analysis of an over-constrained mechanical assembly with form defects by considering the contacts nature (fixed, sliding, and floating contacts) in its geometrical behavior modeling. Different optimization methods are used to study the different contact types. The overall statistical tolerance analysis of the over-constrained mechanical assembly is carried out by determining the assembly and the functionality probabilities based on optimization techniques combined with a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). An application to an over-constrained mechanical assembly is given at the end.


Author(s):  
Stefan Goetz ◽  
Benjamin Schleich ◽  
Sandro Wartzack

Associated with manufacturing and assembly processes, inevitable geometric deviations have a decisive influence on the function and quality of products. Therefore, their consideration and management are important tasks in product development. Moreover, to meet the demand for short development times, the front-loading of design processes is indispensable. This requires early tolerance analyses evaluating the effect of deviations in a design stage, where the product’s geometry has not yet been finally defined. Since such an early tolerance consideration allows quick and economic design changes seeking for robust designs, it is advisable that the design engineer, who is entirely familiar with the design, should take this step. For this purpose, this paper presents an easy-to-use CAD-based tolerance analysis method for skeleton models. The relevant part deviations are represented by varying geometric dimensions with externally driven family tables. The approach comprises the strength of vector-based methods but does not require an expensive set-up of tolerance analysis models. Particularly, the novelty of this method lies in the CAD-internal sampling-based tolerance analysis of simple geometries without the use of expensive CAT software. This enables designers to evaluate the effect of tolerances already at the preliminary design stage. Using a case study, the presented approach is compared with the conventional vector-based tolerance analysis.


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