Tolerance Analysis of Additively Manufactured Non-assembly Mechanisms considering Joint Clearance

Abstract Besides numerous advantages, Additive Manufacturing enables the manufacturing of entire non-assembly mechanisms within one single process step. However, this requires comparatively large joint clearances that significantly influence their functionality. Existing tolerance analysis methods completely neglect or simplify these clearances and thus cannot adequately represent a realistic motion behavior. With the aim to overcome this drawback, this contribution presents a novel method for the statistical tolerance analysis of additively manufactured mechanisms. The integration of results from multi-body simulation enables a realistic representation of the movements within the joints. Finally, the exemplary application to a planar non-assembly mechanism shows, that the process-related large joint clearances have more significant influence than the part deviations.

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