Title: A proposition of 3D inertial tolerancing to consider the statistical combination of the location and orientation deviations

Authors: Pierre-Antoine Adragna, Serge Samper, Maurice Pillet

Addresses: SYMME Laboratory, Universite de Savoie, Polytech'Savoie, BP 80439, 74944 Annecy Le Vieux Cedex, France. ' SYMME Laboratory, Universite de Savoie, Polytech'Savoie, BP 80439, 74944 Annecy Le Vieux Cedex, France. ' SYMME Laboratory, Universite de Savoie, Polytech'Savoie, BP 80439, 74944 Annecy Le Vieux Cedex, France

Abstract: Tolerancing of assembly mechanisms is a major interest in the product life cycle. One can distinguish several models with growing complexity, from 1-dimensional (1D) to 3-dimensional (3D) (including form deviations), and two main tolerancing assumptions, the worst case and the statistical hypothesis. This paper presents an approach to 3D statistical tolerancing using a new acceptance criterion. Our approach is based on the 1D inertial acceptance criterion that is extended to 3D and form acceptance. The modal characterisation is used to describe the form deviation of a geometry as the combination of elementary deviations (location, orientation and form). The proposed 3D statistical tolerancing is applied on a simple mechanism with lever arm. It is also compared to the traditional worst-case tolerancing using a tolerance zone.

Keywords: 3D tolerancing; inertial tolerancing; statistical tolerancing; form tolerancing; modal characterisation; statistical acceptance criterion; assembly mechanisms; product life cycles; inertial acceptance criterion; form acceptance; geometry; elementary deviations; lever arms; tolerance zones; product development; production design; production management; advanced production systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPD.2010.029985

International Journal of Product Development, 2010 Vol.10 No.1/2/3, pp.26 - 45

Published online: 03 Dec 2009 *

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